


Our House

by stellarose



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Domestic Avalance, Domestic Fluff, Established Sara Lance/Ava Sharpe, F/F, Inheritance, Insecure Ava Sharpe, Legends of Tomorrow Team are Family, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Renovations, Soft Ava Sharpe, Soft Sara Lance, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:15:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29596092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarose/pseuds/stellarose
Summary: Sara unexpectedly inherits a French château in need of a lot of work. Just when she and Ava decide what they're going to do with it, life/fate/aliens intervene, as is par for the course in the life of a Legend.
Relationships: Sara Lance/Ava Sharpe
Comments: 53
Kudos: 118





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Mostly set in-canon or post-canon, though I'm not being super specific with the timeline, and assuming that the events of Season 5 play out over a number of months. 
> 
> As always, thanks for reading. Kudos and comments are much appreciated :)

“Captain Lance, this is you monthly reminder regarding the - ”

“Yep, thank-you, Gideon,” Sara said, cutting Gideon off without even looking up from her copy of _A Brief History of the Vikings,_ which Sara was starting to think was going on a bit, especially given the title. It was a rare quiet afternoon on board the Waverider, and Sara and Ava were catching up on a bit of reading in the Captain’s office. “Let’s roll that reminder over to next month.”

“As you wish, Captain Lance. However if I may suggest - ”

“Nope.”

“Understood, Captain,” Gideon said.

Ava looked up from _Unnatural Causes_ , which she had been quite engrossed in, and was picking up some excellent content for some future _StabCast_ episodes. “What was that all about?” she asked Sara.

“Nothin’.”

“Babe…?” Ava caught Sara’s eye.

“It’s nothing. It’s fine. Everything is fine.” Sara almost always lied badly to Ava.

“Ok,” Ava said, knowing that it was definitely something, and hoping that Sara would talk when she was ready.

They continued with their respective lines of study for a few minutes, but Ava could no longer concentrate and found herself reading the same paragraph over and over. She kept looking up from her book, hoping to catch Sara’s eye. Sara was sitting completely still, her eyes staring blankly at the page while she pretended to read.

“Ollie left it for me,” Sara said after a few more minutes of Ava waiting as patiently as she could for answers.

“Oliver Queen?” Ava asked, having no idea what Oliver had left Sara.

“Bequeathed me the house,” Sara said. She closed her book and leant back in her chair, avoiding Ava’s eye. “I didn’t know he was going to do that. And now I have a house, and no idea what to do with it. The reminder from Gideon just now is that I really do need to make a decision.”

“Right,” Ava said, finding her bookmark and setting her book aside. “Why didn’t you tell me, babe?” she asked gently, knowing that Oliver Queen could be a bit of a touchy subject for Sara ever since he’d died trying to save the world a couple of months ago.

“Because I don’t know what to do,” Sara said, feeling frustratingly emotional about a house she had never even been to. “I wanted to figure it out, then I’d tell you my decision. It’s a fixer-upper, which is another complication.”

“Where is it?” Ava asked, becoming intrigued as to why Sara would be so concerned inheriting a house in need of renovations.

“Umm,” Sara stood up and went over to the globe in the office, spinning it around.

“I’m guessing not in the suburbs of Star City, then,” Ava said, as much to herself as to Sara as she got up to have a look.

“Around here,” Sara said.

Ava leant over Sara’s should to look more closely. “Oliver Queen left you a house in south-west France?”

“I mean, I say house, but…”

Ava finally caught Sara’s eye. “Babe…?”

“Eight bedrooms, eight and couple of half bathrooms, I think about five or six living rooms, a whole lot of land. I don’t know, I haven’t been there.”

Ava opened and closed her mouth a couple of times. “Sara, did Oliver leave you a château?”

Sara nodded awkwardly. “See why it’s weird?”

“Why did Oliver have a château? And why leave it to you and not Felicity and the kids?”

Sara grabbed Ava’s hand and pulled her over to the Sara’s preferred armchair and into her lap, wrapping her arms around Ava’s waist and resting her head against Ava’s shoulder. “One version is that it was a bet he ended up loosing a couple of years ago. The other is that he was bored one night and just bought it on a whim, after a couple of beers and seeing a few photos online. Either way, Felicity thought he was insane for buying it. She’s been there once, but it was raining and cold, which made the house even less inspiring. She has no connection to it, and Oliver must have known she wouldn’t want to do the reno. I’ve spoken to her briefly about it, and said she doesn’t care if I just sell it and keep the money instead.”

Ava nodded slowly, rubbing her thumb over the back of Sara’s hand. “For the sake of having all the facts,” Ava said tentatively, “How much would this place be worth?”

“Considering it’s condition, I think you’d be lucky to get a million euros, and even that would mostly be for the land.”

Ava’s eyes widened as she tried to remember the exchange rate. “A million euros?”

“It’s about 1.2 million US dollars,” Sara said. “So it is a nice amount of money.”

“Definitely,” Ava said.

“Plus there’s the fund tied into the house.”

“What?”

“Ollie had put aside another million euros to fix the place up.”

“You’re kidding.”

“But if I sold the place, I’d get the lot. So about two and a half million US.”

“And he didn’t want to leave it to his wife?” Ava said.

Sara shrugged. “So anyway, we can deal with it next month.”

Ava wriggled around and wrapped her arms around Sara’s shoulders, forcing Sara to look at her. “Babe, we need to see this house.”

“It’s ok. I’m probably just going to sell it.”

“We’re seeing the house.”

Sara took a deep breath, about to protest once more, but she as exhaled she looked into Ava’s blue-grey eyes sparkling with intrigue and excitement. She gave Ava a small smile. “Ok. We’ll take the jump-ship tomorrow. But please don’t tell the others yet. Gideon, that goes for you too.”

“I won’t tell,” Ava said. “Gideon brought this up in my presence on purpose, didn’t she? Didn’t you, Gideon?”

“Your presence is purely coincidental, Ms Sharpe,” Gideon replied.

“Lying,” Sara mumbled.

Ava laughed. “Whatever the house is like, we’ll have a nice day out. It’ll be a date.”

“Wow, babe, we really have become proper grown-ups if our dates now consist of looking at houses.”

“It’s a château in the French countryside, what’s not romantic about that?”

“Ok, then. It’s a date,” Sara said. “I am sorry, though. I should have told you.”

“I know you like to fix things and sort them out by yourself,” Ava said.

“And I know I need to stop doing that,” Sara said.

“Yeah, but you won’t,” Ava said, gently tucking a strand of Sara’s hair behind her ear. “And I know that, and you know that, because that’s how you are.”

“I’m better at talking about things than I used to be,” Sara said, thinking about how far she’d come in the past few years, helped in no small part by Ava.

“You definitely are,” Ava agreed, knowing how hard it was for Sara to open up and share. “And you know that I’m here for you, Sara. Always. Whether you unexpectedly inherit a house or… anything.”

“I know,” Sara replied, giving Ava a small kiss on the lips. “Always.”

…

Since there was still no Encore or other time-line related issue requiring immediate attention the following day, Sara and Ava were able to take the jump-ship out, leaving Gideon with instructions to call them if anything urgent happened. When the door opened, they stepped out into a damp, cold field.

“Well, this isn’t exactly what I was imagining,” Sara muttered, popping up her coat collar and looking around at the paddocks and nearby forest.

“One sec,” Ava said, ducking back into to jump-ship and reappearing a moment later with two beanies and a golf umbrella. She handed Sara one of the beanies, and quickly tugged on the other before putting up the umbrella to protect them from the precipitation which seemed unable to decide between being actual rain or wet air.

“What would I do without you?” Sara asked, taking Ava’s spare hand.

“You’d be wet and cold for a start,” Ava said, adjusting her hold of the umbrella.

Sara chuckled. “I was hoping for some sun, though.”

“It’s February. It rains in most of the northern hemisphere. And I’m not sure it’s actually that cold, we’re just no acclimatised to it,” Ava said. “So, have you inherited those cows too?” she asked, looking around at the pastoral landscape.

“My understanding is that most of the paddocks are agisted to a local farmer,” Sara said. “So no, not my cows. I’m happy for them to stay, though.”

“They do help set the scene,” Ava admitted, looking at the animals which didn’t seem the least bit troubled by the weather or their sudden appearance. “So, did Gideon park the jump-ship in a random paddock just for fun, or…?”

“I think I’ve found the house,” Sara said, looking behind the jump-ship.

“ _That_ is the house?” Ava asked with a grin as she saw the symmetrical château across the fields.

“Think so,” Sara said. “From the picture Felicity’s sent me, that’s got to be it.”

Ava gave a low whistle. “Guess we better go check it out.”

They squelched their way across the paddock and up the lawn to the grand chateau, but the closer they got, the more obvious it became that it needed quite a bit of work.

“Even the grass looks like it needs some TLC,” Sara said.

“I think that’s just because it’s winter, babe,” Ava said. “It looks fairly recently mowed.”

“There’s someone how comes to mow the grass and prune the trees every so often,” Sara said. There were some lovely, big old trees around, as well as some shrubs which looked that, with a bit of coercion, they could be shaped into topiary. “I told Gideon to keep that service going. No point this place turning into a jungle.”

The château now loomed over them. Ava guessed that it was a little big bigger than John’s house, substantial in size, but not palatial. Sara let go over Ava’s hand, and putting her hand up to her eyes, peered though one of the windows. All the shutters on the upper floors were closed up, but on the ground floor they were either missing or broken.

“We can go inside, babe,” Ava said, wondering what Sara was doing.

“No we can’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t have the key.”

“What?”

“There’s an estate agent somewhere who has all the necessary things for access. Because we only decided we wanted to visit yesterday, Gideon didn’t have time to make arrangements.”

“So, we’re here to peer in the windows of the château that you own? In the rain and the cold?”

“Yep,” Sara said. “I think that’s some sort of living room. Is that gilding on the fancy cornice?”

“Babe…” Ava began, scepticism now clouding her excitement.

“Hmm?”

Ava sighed, tipped the umbrella back, and peered into the window herself. The paint was peeling, and there were wires hanging from where the ceiling light-fitting should be, but the marble fireplace, ornate cornices, plaster panelling and ceiling rose made excitement rise within Ava. “Ok, babe, I really want to see inside properly,” Ava breathed, her excitement returned in full.

“Would this be the dining room?” Sara asked as she peered into the next window, only half paying attention to Ava.

“Could be,” Ava said, joining her. “We’d fit a table big enough for the whole team in there, that’s for sure.”

“Yeah,” Sara said, her voice a little distant.

Ava recognised that Sara was distracted as much by something she wasn’t saying as she was by the house. They took half an hour to see what they could see in each of the ground floor windows, before deciding they’d seen enough in the cold and wet weather and heading back to the jump-ship.

“What will the team think we were doing?” Ava said, shaking off the umbrella and pulling off her beanie. They hadn’t bothered telling the team they were heading off, as everyone had been engrossed in their own activities.

“Eh,” Sara said. “I’ll be surprised if they noticed we were gone. It’s only been an hour. We can go on a whole mission without B or Z realising anyone left the ship. We can go days without even seeing Mick.”

“Our boots are muddy and our hair is all frizzy.”

“Babe…”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Ava said, thinking about the team members as she sat down. “If anyone’s noticed, it’ll be Ray or Charlie.”

“They’ll think we’ve been on a date.”

“In a wet, muddy field?”

“To a romantic French château,” Sara said, sitting on Ava’s lap, straddling her legs and wrapping her arms around Ava’s neck. “It was your idea. And yesterday you called it a date.”

“True,” Ava said. She always felt secure with Sara on her lap.

“The house is a real fixer-upper.”

“Did that help you decide what you want to do?”

Sara shrugged. “About the house? Don’t know. To you? I got some ideas to help us warm up,” she smirked.

Ava bit her lip to try to hide her eagerness. Though they hadn’t seen any of the bedrooms, Ava could imagine her ideal bedroom with a carved four-poster bed, long curtains sweeping the floor, pale sunlight streaming through the open windows as she and Sara lay between silky-soft, bamboo sheets. “I guess the team won’t notice if we’re a little bit longer.”

…

“Hey, babe?”

“Yeah, babe?”

“I do know why Oliver left the house for me,” Sara confessed as she and Ava were lying in bed that night, the lights already turned off.

“Hmm?” Ava had been starting to drift off, but she had a feeling that she needed to pay attention to whatever Sara was about to say.

“All my adult life, since I got on that damned boat that night… I’ve never had a proper house of my own,” Sara said, staring at the ceiling in the dark. “I’ve always just… existed somewhere. In a safe-house or hide-out or spare room or whatever, but… Of course, it’s different now, on the Waverider, but it’s not a house, you know? And I can’t exactly renovate it. Gideon has made that very clear, especially when it comes to the bathroom.”

Ava knew Sara was trying to make a joke with the bathroom line, but the rest of what she had confessed had never even crossed her mind. “Sara, I…”

“Oliver knew that,” Sara said, matter-of-fact. “Felicity might know too. It’s why he left me the house. Or the means to buy another one one day, I guess.”

“Do you want to keep it?” Ava asked.

“Yes.”

Ava smiled and snuggled into Sara’s side. “Wanna go have a proper look as soon as we can?” she asked.

“Yes,” Sara said. “It would be like John’s house, but, well… you know. Less full of weird magic stuff. We’d still live here most of the time, but the château would be there, waiting for us. Maybe once a week or so we’d be able to spend the night there.”

“Sounds perfect,” Ava said with a tired smile as she imagined lounging on an outdoor setting in a little grove she had seen which, with a little bit of work, would be the perfect place to spend a lazy summer’s evening with a cheese board, a good bottle of wine, and no doubt an assorted collection of the Legends. She had almost fallen asleep again when Sara spoke.

“He knew I was afraid of settling down, too. That I thought I didn’t deserve that. A life where I could, you know… settle down, have a real house and a… a family and all that.”

“And what do you think now?” Ava asked, finding Sara’s hand under the blankets.

“I could do it, so long as I’m with you,” Sara replied with a swallow, glad they were having this conversation in the dark.

“I love you too, babe,” Ava replied, her voice equally thick with sleep and adoration.


	2. Chapter 2

It was over a week before Sara and Ava were able to visit the château again, due to missions to fix the timeline and deal with assorted Encore problems, combined with Gideon’s negotiations with the French real estate agent, and learning that unless Sara could accommodate the times which suited the agent, she wasn’t getting the keys.

“We live on a time-ship, Gideon,” Sara said. “Surely you can make it work?”

“My apologises, Captain Lance,” Gideon said. “But these people are proving more difficult to communicate with than I thought.”

“Is there some issue with the translation?” Ava asked.

“Not at all, Ms Sharpe,” Gideon said. “My French language is impeccable. The issue is purely French bureaucracy and the red tape surrounding Captain Lance’s inheritance of the château. It is just as slow and frustrating as I expected it to be.”

The sun was shining when they touched down in the field for the second time. Even though it was a short distance from the house, they cloaked the jump-ship all the same as they didn’t want the estate agent to see it.

“And how do we explain how we got here?” Ava asked as they walked up the grassy slope to the house, and noticed that there was a distinct difference between the fields and the grounds immediately surrounding the house.

“Something gives me the feeling that if she can speak English, she’ll make an effort not to, so I doubt she’ll ask,” Sara said, being proved right a few minutes later when they met the estate agent. With broken French, Sara was able to introduce herself, and the agent handed over the keys before quickly departing.

“Good to know estate agents are the same around the world,” Sara said, trying to figure out which of the three keys unlocked the front door and wondering what the other two were for.

“She totally wanted to look inside,” Ava said.

“Totally,” Sara said.

“Couldn’t you pick that lock when we came here the other week?”

“Of course I could. But I’m not breaking into my own house. Ah ha! There were go!” Sara smiled as the lock clicked and with a gentle push, the heavy oak door opened. “Ok, well, I like the tiles.”

Inside smelt stuffy and as though it hadn’t been opened up for quite a long time. The entrance hallway was tiled with ornately patterned titles, which, though dusty, were in very good condition. There was a grand, sweeping staircase with decorative iron balusters leading upstairs, and before the stairs were two doorways into different living areas, with more doors further down the hallway.

“This is certainly has a lot of potential,” Ava said, looking around, taking in the soaring ceilings and plaster panels, and seeing the possibilities behind the cobwebs and years of neglect. “How long since this place was last lived in?”

“A decade at least,” Sara said. “It looks to have been kept free from vandals, but it’s still a bit worse for wear. Wow! So this room is a library!” she said, entering the room to the left. There were shelves set into the wall, and the large, though grimy, windows let in plenty of light, showing off the scuffed but beautiful original parquetry flooring.

“We could both have a desk in here,” Ava said, entering behind Sara.

“Put them in the middle of the room, facing each other,” Sara said.

“Which side would you want?”

“Don’t care,” Sara said, “So long as I’m looking at you.”

“That is smooth, babe, but you totally have a preference for that sort of thing.”

“Back to the wall,” Sara said, already imaging two large wooden desks in the middle of the room, books scattered about, a pair of large globes and a painting or mirror hanging over the fireplace. “So I can see the hall and doorway.”

“Thought so,” Ava said. “Do you think there’d still be room for a couch?”

“Definitely,” Sara said. “Plus those window nooks look like they could be really cosy. Add a chandelier, swap this gaudy wallpaper for something much more us, polish up the floor, and this room will be perfect.”

“Definitely,” Ava smiled, slipping her hand into Sara’s. “Ok, well that’s one room sorted. Let’s go see what else we can find.”

They decided that the large room on the other side of the front entrance was the main sitting room. At the back of the house was a room they suspected to be a very generously sized dining room, which would easily fit a table large enough to accomodate all of the Legends and associated hangers-on. The kitchen had last been decorated some time in the 1970’s with ugly brown tiles as the splash-back, orange walls, and now-peeling linoleum over the original Versailles parquetry floors.

“Well, the kitchen sure needs work,” Ava said. She had a look through some of the cupboards, but decided it would be easier to rip them all out and completely redesign the space. There was a small laundry which could be redesigned to be more efficient and feel more spacious, and a door leading outside.

“So long as it has a microwave and a dishwasher, it’ll be fine,” Sara joked, drifting back to the dining room for a better look in there. 

Ava laughed. Already she could tell there would be some design aspects that Sara would be adamant about, and others she would happily leave up to Ava. Ava turned on one of the taps. It sputtered for a moment before brownish water came out. They’d definitely need to get a plumber in to check the pipes.

“Hey, babe! I think I found a secret corridor!” Sara called. “It’s between the dining room and whatever this other living room is for. It has really nice windows. The random room, I mean, not the corridor.”

“That’s great, babe,” Ava called, still exploring the kitchen. “It’s probably a service corridor that the staff would have used back in the day.”

“Oh yeah, it probably is. Do you think we could fit a pool table in here?”

“Hey, Sara?”

“Yeah?”

“Hold that thought. I think I found the cellar.” Ava had opened a door expecting it to be for a panty, but it opened to a set of stairs leading down. She saw a light switch on the wall, and was glad when the light in the stairwell lit up. “It smells kinda weird though,” Ava said, starting to descend the stairs.

“Damp and musty kinda weird, or dead body kinda weird?” Sara called.

“Option A, thankfully,” Ava said, reaching the bottom of the stairs. There was another light switch, and the light revealed the cellar. “Oh, wow. Babe, you have got to see this!”

“I’m looking right at it,” Sara said.

Ava jumped with fright. “God, you’ll give me a heart attack doing that, Sara!”

“Sorry,” Sara said, not particularly sorry. “I thought you heard me coming down the stairs.”

“No,” Ava said, her heart racing.

“Old assassin habits. But look at this space, babe! This is amazing!” Sara said, taking Ava’s hand and pulling her into the middle of the cellar.

“I know we both like a drink, but this is enough space for a couple of lifetime’s worth of alcohol.”

“Oh, we’re not using it for that,” Sara said, taking in the room. She looked at the cavernous, vaulted ceiling and the exposed brickwork. “Now I know exactly why Ollie bought this place,” she grinned.

“What do you mean?” Ava asked.

“It looks like the first Arrow cave down here,” Sara said, her eyes glassing over a little. “It’s not quite as big, and it’s not filled with high-tech stuff, but I can see what we can do with this space already. Salmon ladder over there, weapons cache along that wall with display cabinets for my best looking stuff. Another cabinet over there for other workout equipment. Wire the room up with a sound system and cool lighting. And something about the ventilation to get rid of this smell and the damp.”

“Ok, babe that sounds - ” Ava started, giving Sara’s hand a squeeze.

“Ridiculous? It sounds ridiculous for a place like this to have a room like that,” Sara said, suddenly second-guessing herself.

“What? No. Not at all. I think that sounds awesome.”

“Really?”

“Really,” Ava said. “It does leave me wondering, though,” she said, rubbing the back of Sara’s hand with her thumb, “Where will we put the alcohol?”

Sara grinned. “Naturally, we’ll have a wine-fridge when you redesign the massive kitchen.”

“Naturally,” Ava agreed. “Or two, even. One for reds, and one for whites. They need to be kept at different temperatures, after all.”

“The kitchen is going to be so amazing,” Sara said. “And I think, just maybe, we could turn that room next to the dining room into a poolroom with a bar. A proper bar, made from fancy wood with shelving for all the spirits, lighting to show them off, classic glassware, a mirrored splash back behind the shelves, one of those Art Deco drinks carts, a couple of original leather club chairs, and a pool table.”

“Damn, babe, you’ve got this all planned out already,” Ava said, genuinely impressed.

“I have about two rooms planned with pretty vague ideas,” Sara said. “We haven’t even looked at the upper floors.”

“Guess I better start taking notes,” Ava said.

“You mean you weren’t already?” Sara teased, leading the way back up the stairs.

“We can choose which room we want to be our bedroom,” Ava said. “And figure out whatever is in the attic.”

“First we have to figure out how to get to the attic,” Sara said. “Actually, it might be one of these extra keys. And we’re totally claiming one of the corner rooms as our bedroom. I want those excellent countryside views. And a huge four-poster bed.”

“I want a four-poster bed too!” Ava grinned.

“I slept in one last time I stayed in France,” Sara said.

“What?”

Sara looked back at Ava and winked.

Ava chuckled despite herself and shook her head.

“She might have been the Queen of France,” Sara said. “But Ava Sharpe, you are queen of this castle. And my heart, but that much goes without saying.”

Ava playfully smacked Sara on the bottom. “Our room will have an ensuite, right?”

“Yes,” Sara said. “So we need to find a corner room with the largest bathroom, so we can have a double vanity, plus double bath, and maybe a double shower. Or at least a shower-head over the bath. But definitely a double bath.”

Ava knew exactly why Sara wanted a large bath. “What about the other seven bedrooms?”

“Well,” Sara said as the reached the landing on the first floor. “Once the team find out, there is no way Zari is not going to want to get involved.”

…

Ava sat on the bed, flicking through the pages of lists she had written since their return to the Waverider that evening. The lists were in no order at all, and she was looking forward to collating, colour-coding, and generally putting it all into a workable order. Each room would need it’s own list, and even within each of those lists, she would have to come up with a system to show the order in which works would need to be completed, while also marking which parts would be the costliest and/or take the longest. She had no idea how much any of this would cost, and was looking forward to sitting down with a spreadsheet and figuring it all out. Ava had never been more grateful for Oliver Queen than knowing that he’d left Sara with a considerable amount of money for renovating the château.

“Nearly ready for bed, babe?” Sara asked, entering the bedroom. She had been sorting through the costumes with Nate and figuring out what could be reused and what they’d need to have newly fabricated for upcoming missions.

“I’m quite excited by this challenge, babe,” Ava said, chewing on the end of her pencil while Sara began stripping off without abandon. “Financially as well as creatively.”

“You don’t think we can do it for a million euros?”

“I have no idea how much it will cost, but I’m guessing Oliver must have done some calculations if he put that much aside.”

Sara nodded, tossing her bra aside and pulling on her soft grey pyjama top. “And in terms of design?”

“What do you mean?” Ava asked, her mind suddenly empty of any thoughts but that of Sara’s beautifully sculpted body.

“Any ideas?” Sara asked, not entirely aware as to how distracting she was.

“Plenty,” Ava said, watching Sara’s abs disappear as her top slipped down over her body. “I’m going to need to do a lot more research, though.”

Sara kicked off her boots and shoved them into the cupboard. “I don’t want the house looking like a display home or interior design studio or whatever.”

“Of course not,” Ava agreed. “It has to look lived it. Homely.”

“It has to look like us,” Sara said. “When someone walks in, they have to know it’s our place. No white walls. I can’t have the place looking like a hospital,” she said, dropping her trousers.

“We’ll use warm colours, and decorate with things we love. Books, photos, pictures and prints that we like. Plenty of globes.”

“Swords.”

“Swords,” Ava chuckled in agreement.

Sara pulled on her pyjama pants and climbed onto the bed, crawling over to have a look at Ava’s lists. “So we’re really doing this.”

“It’s your house.”

“ _We’re_ really doing this,” Sara said purposefully, looking up and giving Ava a kiss on the lips. “Hey, Gideon?”

“Yes Captain?”

“Does the château have a name?” Sara asked, sliding her legs into the bed.

“It has had a series of names over the years, Captain.”

“Have you considered going back and seeing it when it was new?” Ava asked.

Sara shrugged. “Thought about it, but… I don’t know. It would be weird. Like if you met some version of me when I was still with the Arrow crew, or even with the League. I’d still be me, but… you know.”

Ava put her notes and pencil on the bedside table and wrapped her arm around Sara’s shoulder. “Maybe we could re-christen the house.”

“Hey, Gideon, what’s Waverider in French?”

“Assuming you mean that to be the name of the château, Captain, it would translate as _Château du Vague de Cavaliers._ ”

“Well, that’s a bit of a mouthful,” Sara said.

“Is ‘vague’ spelt the same was as the English word for ‘not very specific’?” Ava asked.

“Correct, Ms Sharpe,” Gideon replied.

“Eh, we’ll think of something else,” Sara said. “Well, babe, guess we better tell the team tomorrow.”

“They are going to be so - actually, I don’t know how they’ll react. Surprised, probably. Excited? They won’t see it coming.”

“I want to offer them the chance to do up an ensuite bedroom each,” Sara said. “There’s eight rooms, obviously we’ve chosen the best one for ourselves, but considering we’re in charge of all of downstairs, the basement, attic, outside, hallways and staircases, I think we can offload a couple of bedrooms onto the team.”

“Onto Zari, you mean?”

Sara chuckled. “Come on, babe. You know she is going to love it.”

“It’s an excellent idea,” Ava said. “Because I could not think of what to do in seven other bedrooms and bathrooms. Maybe three or four, but not seven.”

“I never thought I’d be excited about a house,” Sara said, leaning against Ava.

“I’ve never seen you this excited about something that isn’t weapons.”

Sara laughed, enterally comfortable by Ava’s side. “The house will be like one of those _I Spy_ books, and you have to find the weapons in every room,” she grinned.


	3. Chapter 3

“We could get a pyrolytic oven,” Sara said with a mouthful of toast while she and Ava had a late breakfast in the galley. The rest of the team were either in the bathroom queue or still in bed enjoying a well-deserved sleep-in after a busy few days spent saving the world from Encores.

“What?” Ava asked, looking up from her porridge. They’d been eating in comfortable silence, and Ava’s coffee hadn’t quite kicked in enough for her to be able to follow Sara’s train of thought.

“That’s what they’re called right? Pyrolytic ovens? The ones that clean themselves? Let’s get two, actually. There’s definitely enough room.”

Ava laughed.

“What?” Sara asked, crunching on her toast. “That is what they’re called, right?”

“Yeah, that’s what they’re called,” Ava chuckled, taking another mouthful of porridge.

“Then what’s so funny?” Sara pouted.

“Babe, you can hardly make a sandwich, let alone cook real food, and here you are suggesting we get pyrolytic ovens in the château you inherited.”

“I can mix drinks,” Sara said, indignant.

“And that is why we’ll be having a whole bar or poolroom or whatever you want to call it in the house.”

“Our house,” Sara said, taking a sip of orange juice.

“What?”

“You keep calling it my house, or the house, but it’s _our_ house, babe. With _our_ pyrolytic ovens. I - I want it to be our house. Legally.”

“What, really Sara? You’re serious?”

“Of course,” Sara said. “Would you like that?”

“I - yes. Yes, babe, what - this is amazing. Oh my gosh, Sara, I love you so much.”

Sara grinned. “Hey, Gideon, can you do whatever needs to happen to get Ava’s name put on the deed to the house as well as mine?”

“Even I cannot escape French bureaucracy, but I will make a start on the process of having Ms Sharpe’s name added as well as yours, Captain,” Gideon said.

Sara smiled. “Good,” she said.

Ava beamed as she scraped up the last of her porridge. “Do you think we could perhaps exploit the fact that we live on a time-ship and visit Ming Dynasty China for a couple of vases?” she asked hopefully.

“Obviously we’re can go shopping throughout time,” Sara said. “You can have your Ming vases, I’ll get my modern pyrolytic ovens.”

Ava laughed. “I don’t think we’re going to have any issues when it comes to making this place our own,” she said, standing up and kissing Sara on the cheek. “Have you had any other thoughts about kitchen appliances?”

“Not appliances as such,” Sara said. “But I have been thinking about knives.”

“Kitchen knives, or knives generally?”

“Both,” Sara said. “I’ll let you pick all the kitchen utensils and pots and pans and cups and bowls and stuff if I get to choose the knives.”

“Deal,” Ava grinned. She’d fantasised about learning to bake madeleines and make proper French crepes, and just the though of buying the correct equipment was exciting.

“Oh, and babe I found the ultimate bisexual flowers and we totally have to plant them somewhere,” Sara said, unlocking her phone and finding the photo. “I meant to show you this yesterday, but we were busy and then I forgot.”

“Those are hydrangeas, babe,” Ava said, glancing at the picture of flourishing bushes of blue, purple and pink hydrangeas tumbling over a low, mossy garden wall. She could scarcely imagine Sara googling ‘French garden inspiration’, but she must have been looking at something along those lines, and the idea of Sara getting all domestic gave Ava a warm, fuzzy feeling. “I’ll add them to the garden restoration list.”

“Excellent. But how do you know what they are?” Sara asked.

“Everyone knows what they are,” Ava said. “They’re very common.”

“Sorry, they didn’t teach botany in the League of Assassins unless it was specifically lethal.”

“I think hydrangeas can be used to make cyanide,” Ava said.

“We are getting some,” Sara grinned.

…

As expected, the Legends were extremely excited about and interested in seeing Sara and Ava’s château, and Ava decided that their introduction to it could be a cleaning-bee, because as much as the house needed a lot of renovation work, first it needed to be properly cleaned. Sara had no objections to this, as it would mean less work for her and Ava, and she too was looking forward to seeing the house cleaned up a bit.

The team arrived at the château armed with buckets, brooms, mops, dusters, clothes, Windex, and paper towel. Even though the weather was cool, the first thing they did was go through and open up all the windows, the excited cries of the team echoing through the empty house as they explored it for the first time.

“What do you think, babe?” Sara asked Ava as they stood at the bottom of the main staircase, listening to the kids finding all the different rooms, calling to one another as they went.

“Feels like home already,” Ava grinned, wrapping her arm around Sara’s waist.

Once everyone was calmer, they sorted out who’d be doing which jobs. Ray volunteered for everything, Nora had to leave to tend to her fairy god-child, Mick absconded without a word, John was surprisingly good with a mop, Charlie spent a lot of time pretending to look busy, Zari was extremely efficient on window cleaning, and Behrad almost feel out of a window when trying to remove cobwebs from the eaves. It took most of the day, but in the end all of the floors were swept and mopped, all cobwebs removed inside and out, the wood and plaster panelling had been dusted, and the majority of the windows had been cleaned.

“Well, this as been productive,” Sara said, as she and Ava went around checking that all the windows had been properly shut and locked.

“The house even smells cleaner,” Ava said. “Plus it makes it a bit easier to see where to start.”

“I think we need some inspiration now,” Sara said. “I wanna go splash some cash.”

“Ok, babe, but we need a plan and - ” Ava caught Sara’s eye. “You want to go and buy whatever you see that you like, right?”

“For out first shopping trip, yes. After that, we’ll see how everything’s going, work out what other special artefacts we need to pick up from various historical periods, all that.”

“All right,” said Ava, deciding to go along with Sara’s spontaneity this time. “We’ll have to check with Gideon that the timeline isn’t about to implode or anything like that, and then find a date for a family outing to the flea markets of Paris.”

…

Since the trip to find and collect Encore Marie Antionette from 18th century Versailles, and then finding out about and visiting Sara’s château, Zari had thrown herself into the project with gusto. She would wander around the Waverider carrying varying assortments of books on French design, and leave her favourites open on strategically suggestive pages in prime locations with the intent of dropping hints about ideas for the rest of the house.

Bedrooms and ensuites were offered to all of the Legends to make-over, although all major decisions had to be ok-ed by Sara and Ava. Zari and Nate accepted with enthusiasm, with most of the others respectfully declining. Behrad asked if Zari could design his room for him. “But I get to choose the taps in the ensuite.”

“Bit weird, but ok,” Sara agreed.

“But we still get a veto!” Ava said, suddenly worried about what thoughts Behrad might have for his bathroom.

“Of course,” Behrad said with a smile. “Hey Zari! You get to do my room too!” he shouted down the corridors of the Waverider. Zari’s squeal of delight echoed around the ship.

“You know, I’m a lot less worried about what Nate will come up with than Zari. I think his ideas will be closer to what we’ll be doing,” Sara said a few days later when they were getting ready to go shopping. “Even Behrad’s tap design - well, I’m pretty sure he just wants something ultra-modern, which could look really cool contrasted with all the other period features.”

“I’m sure Zari’s bedroom design will be fine,” Ava said, sitting on the bed to put on her boots. “Don’t forget we can always play the veto card.”

“True,” Sara said. There were some rather awful designs in some of the books that Zari left lying around, however thankfully they were never left open on those pages. A couple of times Ava had almost caught her flicking through the pages of Zari’s design books. “You nearly ready? Don’t tell the others, but I’m looking forward to this.”

“Going shopping was your idea, babe.”

“Yeah, I know, but I don’t just mean shopping,” Sara said. “I never would have chosen to renovate a massive house in a foreign country, let alone go shopping in one of the world’s leading flea markets to get inspiration and some design ideas, but now I’m doing this, I actually kind like it.”

Ava smiled. She knew that Sara had been on Pinterest looking at other examples of French châteaux interiors and gardens, because one time she had been logged into Ava’s account without realising. “Don’t worry babe, your secret’s safe with me.”

Half an hour later, the team arrived at the Marche aux Puces de Saint-Ouen _,_ at Porte de Clignancourt on northern edge of Paris. They had already agreed they’d split up for the morning and meet again for lunch. John, Charlie and Mick headed off to find coffee and pâtisseries, Behrad tagged along with Zari who had a long list of stores and stalls she wanted to visit, Nate already knew which bookshops he wanted to check out, and Ray and Nora were going for a walk through nearby Montmartre, leaving Sara and Ava to explore the market by themselves.

“Ava! Ava!” Sara called excitedly an hour or so into their hunt through the market, bouncing over to where Ava was carefully looking through stacks of gold-framed mirrors.

“How much over €100 is it?” Ava asked. They’d agreed that they could purchase anything they wanted without asking the other so long as it was under €100.

“I found a plate that looks like a cabbage, and I want it.”

“How much is it?” Ava asked, looking up. She had a very specific idea for the size and style of mirrors she wanted for different space in the house, but wasn’t finding anything that was just so. “Wait, what did you say you found?”

“A plate that looks like a cabbage. I think there’s some that look like other foods too. And other fancy plate covers.”

“You mean _cloches_?”

“Maybe? I know I said I’d leave the kitchen to you, but can we get some cabbage plates?”

Ava had to laugh. Sara at the market was like a child in a toy shop. She wanted just about everything she saw, especially any swords, and her taste in everything else was eclectic to say the least. Ava’s shopping was much more structured, she knew what she wanted, and was looking for specific pieces. “Let’s go have a look,” Ava said, temporarily abandoning her hunt for the perfect mirrors.

“Oh, let’s get that picture of those ladies,” Sara said, pointing to a framed mid-nineteenth century painting, roughly the size of a coffee table book of two women in huge crinoline dresses, one sitting on a settee holding a book, while the other held a freshly cut bouquet of flowers. “I wonder what those flowers mean. They were all into the meaning of flowers back then. I bet they were girlfriends.”

“Ok, we can get the old-timey girlfriends picture,” Ava said, her eye catching the €12 price sticker, and deciding that was a bargain for something that would be just right for the upstairs hallway, where Ava planned to display a variety of artwork. She waited while Sara quickly bought the painting, and looked around the increasingly busy market. They’d already found a secluded corner once so they could open a portal to the chateau with Ava’s time courier to drop off an assortment of items, including two framed _belle époque_ Absinthe posters which Sara wanted to hang in the pool room, two eighteenth-century swords, and a narrow wooden hall-table in need of some TLC, and she could see the need for doing it very soon. “Right, where are these cabbage plates?” Ava asked when Sara returned a minute later with the painting wrapped in brown paper tucked under her arm.

“In the place down here,” Sara said, leading the way through the rabbit warren of stalls. “They were next to a bucket of swords, but they’re all rusty and I can find nicer ones.”

“Of course,” Ava chuckled. Suddenly her eyes widened and she grabbed Sara’s arm. “Babe! That’s it!”

“What’s it?” Sara asked, looking around.

“That mirror! That’s the perfect one for the entrance hall.”

“Ok. Let’s buy it.”

“Really?”

“Of course,” Sara said. “I’ll find the swords, sapphic pictures and food-themed plates, you find the large items that we actually need. Sorry for making you be the sensible one.”

“Babe, I honestly love looking for perfect mirrors, side-tables, and - oooh. Sara, look at all this linen.”

Beside the stall with the mirror was a large table filled with piles of white linen. The man behind the counter watched them, no doubt assuming he was looking at a couple of tourists, hopefully with money to spare.

“Hey, babe, these towels have your initials on them,” Sara said, picking up a pile of half a dozen creamy white tea towels with a red stripe down the side and _A.S._ embroidered in the corner.

“Are there ones with your initials?” Ava said, looking at the stacks of towels on the table.

“Hopefully, but we’re getting these anyway,” Sara said. “We can keep an eye out for _S.L._ ones and try to find them somewhere else.”

They searched through the towels without finding a set with Sara’s initials. The man gave them the _A.S_. towels for free because their haggling efforts for the mirror were so poor. Ava placed the towels into her bag, and the man put a ‘Vendu’ sticker onto the mirror, as they’d come back later to collect it.

“Nearly time to find Zari?” Ava asked, when they stopped at a bench to rearrange their bags with the painting, towels and two cabbage-design serving plates. Between the green plates and red and white towels, Ava was getting some good ideas for the complete kitchen design. They’d seen a lovely, ornate late ninetieth-century barometer, but decided to figure out where it would go before spending a thousand euros on it.

“I think so,” said Sara, beginning to get hungry. “Time to find a coffee too.”

The found Zari and Charlie a couple of rows over, searching through boxes of assorted tap-ware.

“Z’s already put holds on half the items around here and made friends with all the owners,” Charlie teased.

“Really?” Ava asked, hoping Zari hadn’t spent her own money on items for the house or that she’d got a receipt if she had so Ava could reimburse her. “Zari, you - umm…”

“It’s not that much, boss, really,” Zari said. “Just a few little things.”

“Where’s Behrad? And John and Mick for that matter?” Sara asked.

“And Nate,” said Ava. “I don’t expect Ray and Nora to be back yet though.”

“Mick took himself for a walk before he got tempted to nick something,” Charlie said. “Behrad went to find coffee about an hour ago, and John went looking for weird magic stuff. We crossed paths Nate not too long ago, and he was looking mighty excited about some of his finds,” she explained.

“You have to come and see this chandelier I found,” Zari said, grabbing Ava by the hand. “There’s also a few different types of wall sconces I think you’ll like, plus I found this stall with reams of the most amazing fabric, and the stall owner is from Iran. You totally have to see it.”

“What have you guys been buying?” Charlie asked Sara, as they followed behind.

“Weapons, alcohol posters, gay art. A few other things.”

“Nice,” said Charlie. “Want me to carry something?”

“Please,” Sara said, happy to hand over the bag with the painting and plates.

They ended up buying the chandelier Zari had had put aside, deciding at once that it was perfect for the library. They purchased three different types of wall sconces, some for Zari’s bedroom, some for the main living room, and some for the poolroom.

“Hey, babe?” Sara asked, leaning close to Ava as Zari expertly haggled with the store owner over the price of the fabric she was going to buy to create the soft furnishings in her allotted bedroom.

“Yeah, babe?”

“Have you seen what I’ve seen?”

“Do you mean that beautifully upholstered armchair over there?”

“Wanna get it?” Sara asked with a smile.

“Wanna try it out first?”

Sara grabbed Ava’s hand and sat down in the wing-backed chair, pulling Ava onto her lap.

“Perfect,” Ava said, admiring the green velvet brocaded fabric, and the fact that there was something about the shape which meant that in this intimate position, she and Sara fitted just right.

The man Zari was haggling with, however, was less impressed. He started waving and shouting when he saw them sitting there.

“Is he being homophobic, or…”

“Ugh. I can’t take you two anywhere,” Zari said dramatically. “You’re not supposed to sit there.”

“Tell the man we want to buy it. Sort out a price for it, please, Z,” Sara said.

Zari spoke to the owner in rapid-fire Farsi, and within seconds the man was smiling and once more amiably haggling over the cost of the fabric, and now also the chair.

“How much is it?” Ava asked, looking for a price tag.

“Who cares? It’s a special piece for our room.”

“Our room?”

“Please, babe, this chair is way too nice for the general population.”

Ava chuckled.

“Who’s going to get a better deal, Zari or her fabric-selling friend?” Sara asked, her arms around Ava’s waist as Zari continued haggling.

“In the short term, fabric-guy,” Ava said. “But in the long term, Zari, and by extension, us. She’s going to become his best customer for however long it takes us to do up the house, and he’ll source her anything she wants.”

“I know that you know this, but coming here has made me realise that we need a proper plan for fixing the house.”

Ava looked at Sara. “Oh my gosh, babe. That’s pretty much the most romantic thing you can say to me,” she beamed.

Sara laughed. “What? ‘Ava Sharpe, you were right, we need to make a plan’?”

“Babe, I can’t explain how excited hearing you say that makes me.”

“Well, we’ll find the rest of the team, get some lunch, collect all out items, drop them back at the château, then return to the Waverider and make a plan, unless Gideon drops some Encore disaster on us or something.”

“Not today, babe,” Ava said. “Today we come up with a proper renovation plan. The crazy can wait.”

…

The crazy did wait, but not for long.

…

And then Sara disappeared.


	4. Chapter 4

“Captain Sharpe, this is you monthly reminder regarding the - ”

“Gideon, just don’t,” Ava said sternly as she unpacked the dishwasher. She knew Gideon meant well, and it was her interference that had gotten them started on the château project in the first place, but since Sara had disappeared a couple of months ago, Ava couldn’t bring herself to face it. She had ignored the notes and plans that they’d made, and hadn’t opened her Pinterest app nor any of Zari’s design books, including the two sitting on Ava’s bedside table.

“Don’t what?” Nate asked, entering the galley with an empty coffee mug in hand.

Ava hadn’t realised he was there. “Never mind,” she muttered, turning back to the dishes.

Nate put his empty coffee mug in the sink. “Is it about your house?”

Ava didn’t reply keeping her attention fixed on putting the cutlery away.

“Ava, if you - ”

“It’s not my house, Nate!” Ava snapped, shutting the draw with more force than she had meant. “We never finished finalising the reams of paperwork to have my name added to the deed before she disappeared, so it’s not mine, ok? It’s Sara’s house, and Sara’s not here.”

“But she wanted it to be yours,” Nate said gently. He didn’t often push Ava when the topic of Sara and her sudden disappearance came up, leaving Ava to talk when she was ready, but he hated the idea of that fantastic château sitting there as empty, abandoned and unloved as it had been for the past decade or however long. Just as they’d been about to start, everything had come to a grinding halt. He thought of the box in the bedroom he had chosen, and the books inside it. He knew exactly the style of French Empire design bookshelf he wanted to find for the room, along with a matching desk. “I know you never thought you’d have to do it alone, but - just do something, Ava. There’s plenty to be done that doesn’t involve the slightest bit of design.”

Ava stalked out of the galley, unable to hear anymore of what she knew was the truth. She marched around to their bedroom, and plopped down onto the bed, grabbing Sara’s pillow to hug. Sara smiled at her from the photo on Ava’s bedside table. Hot tears burned in Ava’s eyes. She didn’t want Nate to be right. She didn’t want anyone to be right. She just wanted Sara. Ava swallowed back tears. She opened the top draw beside her bed, and took out her notepad with the pages filled with everything that needed to be done to the château. Her complete notes, colour-coded and ordered were sitting on the shelf just across the room, but somehow they felt impossibly far away.

“Gideon?” Ava asked softly after a few minutes of looking over her hand-written notes. Somehow it felt like just yesterday and a life-time ago that she had written them.

“Yes, Captain Sharpe?”

Ava’s shoulders slumped. The title still felt wrong without Sara here. “Can you - are you able to somehow project manage this? Deal with the finances and, well… everything in French?”

“I can have the tradespeople believe that I am your UK-based project manager and/or accountant as necessary, Captain Sharpe,” Gideon said.

“Would you?”

“I am happy to assist in any way I can.”

Ava nodded. Although adding her name to the deed to the house hadn’t been finalised before Sara’s disappearance, her name had been added alongside Sara’s to the bank account, which enabled Ava to make a proper start to the renovations, even in Sara’s absence.

Ava took a deep breath, the practical part of her brain pushing the emotional part aside. She knew what needed to happen, and grabbed the folder from the shelf and flicked through the organised renovation plans which she hadn’t looked at for months. Ava sat back down on the bed, opening to the master list. Some things which she and Sara had decided were most important, such as redesigning the kitchen and choosing paint colours and wallpaper as applicable would have to wait. There were other less creative jobs which could be done, and Ava sought them out.

By the beginning of winter, since it was already July, it would be ideal if the roof could be checked, fixed and repointed as needed, Ava thought. She grabbed a pencil from her bedside table and put an asterisk beside that point. A roof plumber could check, clean and replace any damaged guttering. The shutters could be fixed or replaced and repainted, the house re-wired, and the internal plumbing checked, and any old piping replaced. That made for five tradespeople. No design work was required, other than choosing the colour of the shutters, but Ava knew that Sara wanted them to be a classic French pale blue-grey, which they seemed to have had been at some earlier stage. These were all boring jobs that needed to be done for the safety, security and integrity of the house, Ava told herself. The only thing Oliver had done was to have a structural engineer come and check the house, confirming that it was structurally sound. Ava was glad that was one less job to do. But these others… if she could get them started, and maybe even finished before Sara returned, they would then be able to get onto the fun part. Together.

“Ok, Gideon. I’m going to need you to find some tradespeople and get some quotes,” Ava said, looking at the five tasks with marks beside them.

“Very good, Captain,” Gideon said. “If you make me a list of exactly what you would like, I can start at once.”

…

Ava didn’t bother telling the team where she was going, or even that she was going. If anyone came looking for her, which was unlikely as they were all busy doing their own things, Gideon would tell them the truth. It wasn’t that Ava was running away or hiding, she just didn’t want to make a scene or have to answer anyone’s questions, no matter how well-meaning they were. She wouldn’t be long, anyway. Just an hour or so to… Ava wasn’t sure what exactly she was going to do, but she knew she needed to go.

Ava stepped through the portal from the time courier into a warm, sunny afternoon. The scene could hardly be more bucolic. There were cows wandering in the fields nearby, and butterflies flittering through the grass which was in need of a mow. Birds were twittering all around, and the lovely all château stood watching over it all.

“Hello house,” Ava said, walking up to the front door. She fiddled with the keys to find the right one, and finally heard the click of the lock and pushed the heavy oak door open. Ava took a deep breath, pushing her feelings down, preparing herself for a clinical, structured look around the château.

Inside, the house was stuffy, as the previous few days had been hot, so Ava left the door open to let some air in. No one had visited the house since before Sara had disappeared, but now that Gideon was finalising the first of the tradespeople to begin the renovations Ava felt the need to return. The electrician and plumber would need access inside, and Ava had to think of a way to give them daily access to the château. Perhaps whichever of the Legends was quarter-backing the mission could also be on house duty. They had all made it clear that they were willing to do whatever she needed to help out, and as much as she’d like to, she knew she couldn’t do it alone.

Ava wandered through the downstairs rooms, noticing little things like light switches, some of which looked original and others were obviously much newer, their plain plastic casing not nearly as attractive as the original brass switches, and the position and number of power-points. Ava stopped in the kitchen. There was a box on the floor which held the few things she and Sara had bought for the kitchen, but the ugly brown tiles and orange walls were such an affront to the senses that Ava left the room without looking through it and headed upstairs. Again, she looked through each room, noticing the boxes in Nate, Behrad, and Zari’s respective rooms. Zari was eager to get started on renovating her rooms, but understood that the plumbing and electricity needed to be checked and fixed first. Once that happened, Ava knew there would be next to no holding her back.

Finally, Ava entered her and Sara’s room. She opened the beautiful French windows in a rather dramatic fashion, leaning out as the fresh air blew in, and was surprised to find herself smiling. Sara would laugh at her doing that, Ava though. There was a box on the floor of their room too, plus the two swords Sara had bought at the Marche aux Puces leaning against the fireplace, as they hadn’t decided where they would go, and the big green wing-backed chair, which was sitting beside the fireplace. Ava put her bag down on the chair and took out a photo of her and Sara in a simple brass frame fabricated by Gideon to match the chair. Ava placed the photo on the mantlepiece, moved her bag and sat down on the chair. The chair almost felt too big without Sara.

“Well, babe,” Ava said. “I - I guess I’m making a start. But please come home soon,” she said, her voice cracking. Ava kicked off her shoes and curled up on the chair. She closed her eyes and rested her head against one of the wings, imaging Sara holding her tightly.

“I want to take you to Venice and we can splurge on some fancy Murano glass products,” Ava said softly, opening her eyes again to look at the photo of Sara which seemed just right positioned on the mantlepiece. “We can get a chandelier and some decorative glass something-or-other, even if it is just a statue. Or a vase. Maybe coloured glass? I want to be all clichéd and romantic in Venice with you, babe. Then we can catch a connecting train back to Pau and our château,” Ava sighed wistfully.

“I have so many plans, Sara. I just really need you to make them all possible.”

…

Within weeks work was under way, and Ava had to admit that she felt all the better for it. Pretending that the château wasn’t there and wasn’t in need of anything and that Sara wouldn’t want her to do anything at all without her had been as damaging as if Ava had tried to pretend that Sara herself wasn’t missing. But that’s all she was, Ava had convinced herself. Missing. She would come back, even if some of the team were becoming doubtful. Ava knew Sara’s history, and knew Sara herself better than anyone. Sara would fight like hell to come back home.

“I got an email from Quentin Lance,” Ava said one evening, finding Nate in the library.

“Huh?” Nate looked up from the large medieval manuscript he was looking through.

“He sent me an email. He’d like to come to the château for a couple of weeks.” Ava hadn’t met Quentin in real life, having only seen on-screen him when Sara had been chatting to him online. She felt nervous about meeting him in person, especially given the current circumstances.

“He knows it’s a construction site, right?” Nate asked.

“It’s not that bad,” Ava said. On her few visits in recent weeks, she had been very impressed with the cleanliness of tradesmen who had been working inside the château, and wondered if Gideon had been particular on that point. “And he wants to help out.”

“Well, I guess if I had a château in need of renovations, my mom would want to help,” Nate said. “Hank would have made for the hills. I don’t even know if he knew what a spanner was, let alone how to use one. Mom was always the one changing light-globes or fixing squeaky doors.”

“It might be nice…” Ava said, quite unsure as to whether or not this was a good idea.

“It’s possible that he needs this,” Nate said, leaning back in his chair and looking up at Ava. “The electrician will be done in another day or two and the shutters should be finished by the end of next week and ready to be fitted. And then… well, I don’t know. What happens next?”

Ava leant against the door frame. Once the shutters were rehung, that would be each of the five items on her list completed, and now that work had started she didn’t want to see it come to a complete stop. She needed to reconsult the master list.

“Quentin probably feels as helpless as we do a lot of the time,” Nate continued. “And maybe he thinks that by doing something at the château, he’s somehow helping Sara. I don’t know, but sometimes I feel more useful there than I do around here, even if I am just opening up for the labourers.”

Ava nodded slowly, knowing Nate was right, but needing to hear him say it all the same. “We don’t have any beds.”

“I’m sure Gideon can sort something out.”

Ava took a deep breath. “I - I do worry about her, Nate. A lot,” she confessed, looking at the floor.

“Need a hug?”

Ava nodded.

Nate stood up, took two exaggerated steps, and pulled Ava in for a bear-hug. “Quentin is a good guy. Sara is strong and brave and loves you very much. She’ll be happy to see that some of the boring work to the house has been done. Imagine how impatient she’d be if she was here? At least we know that the water will be safe for Quentin to use, and that the electricity isn’t going to accidentally cause a fire.”

“And the roof won’t leak,” Ava said, holding onto Nate.

“Exactly,” Nate said.

“I know I can’t let myself get sucked down the rabbit warren of ‘what if’s’, but what if…” Ava sighed, resting her head against Nate’s shoulder, unable to finish her thought.

“One task at a time,” Nate said, not letting Ava go. “No need to rush. The house has stood for a couple of hundred years, it’ll wait for however long these renovations take.”


	5. Chapter 5

Two flights and two trains later, Quentin Lance met Ava and Zari at the small station in the village up the road from Sara’s château. Ava hadn’t been sure what Quentin had would be like in person, but the moment they met she knew they were going to get along just fine. Quentin greeted Ava with a comforting hug that Ava didn’t know she needed. As much as the team missed Sara, Ava knew that Quentin was the only one feeling her loss as acutely as she was.

“Nice village you got here,” Quentin said with a smile. He was tired and jet-lagged, but grateful to have finally reached his destination.

“Oliver only bought the château, not the whole village,” Ava said, before realising she was taking the comment too literally. “Umm, a whole lot of farmland came with the château too."

“Did you leave your bag on the train?” Zari asked, looking at the one carry-on sized bag Quentin had along with a backpack slung over his shoulders.

“Nope, this is it,” he said. “I’ve got a change of clothes, a toothbrush and a book. Don’t need that much.”

Ava wanted to comment that the amount of things Zari took into the bathroom every morning wouldn’t fit in Quentin’s suitcase, but decided to keep that to herself. They talked about Quentin’s flights and train-rides out to the small village while they walked back up the road to the château.

“The front fence needs work,” Ava said as they approached the property. “And the gate.”

“And 99% of the interior,” Zari added. “Now that the pipes and wires are fixed.”

“True,” Ava admitted, still looking at the fence. She’d never taken much notice of it before as the gate could only just be seen from the château, and visa-versa, as the team always took the jump-ship or used the time couriers to access the château. Ava thought that it should be repaired, and could go on the list of jobs that didn’t need Sara’s creative input. It would just be a case of restoring it to it’s original splendour, and maybe adding a few lavender bushes and a couple of standard roses either side of the gate to complete the effect.

They walked up the long driveway to the house, and Ava realised that the driveway needed work too. Weeds were starting to grow in the middle of the crushed rock, spots where puddles formed in wet weather were visible, and the grass borders were hardly defined. Zari kept up conversation with Quentin with ease while Ava’s mind wandered, thinking about these tasks. It would be nice to get them done for Sara, Ava thought. The landscaping and surrounds were equally as important as the house itself.

“Oh, wow,” Quentin said as they came around the curve in the driveway and got the first proper look at the château. “Oliver Queen left _that_ for my baby? God bless your soul, boy. That is beautiful,” Quentin grinned.

Ava had to admit that the château was looking better than when she and Sara had first visited six months ago. The roof had been professionally cleaned and repointed, the gutters were cleared, cleaned, and replaced where necessary, the cobwebs removed, and all of the new and/or freshly painted shutters had been installed days before. Gideon had worked her magic to get all the tradespeople finished before Quentin’s return, and Ava knew that the electrician and plumber were keen to return for more work when they were required in coming phases of the renovations.

“Yeah, don’t get your hopes up that inside looks anything like this,” Zari said.

“I know,” Quentin said, unable to stop smiling as he took in the grand symmetrical château. “But I’ll be able to get a few good exterior shots to show the team back at the office where I stayed. Make ‘em all jealous, even if there is a lot of work to be done inside.”

“It really is one-star accommodation inside,” Zari stressed. “Seriously. Maybe not even that.”

“At least the lights works, the power-points aren’t going to start a fire, and all the plumbing is fine, even if the bathroom is a bit dated,” Ava tried.

“Extremely dated with ugly tiles,” Zari said.

Quentin chuckled. “So long as the windows open and close, the water runs clear, the power works, and there’s no bed bugs, it’ll be fine.”

Once inside and after a brief tour downstairs, it didn’t take Quentin long to unpack his few things. Even though the room allotted to him had wallpaper which had faded in some places, yellowed in others, and was peeling at the seams, there was still a romance to it, with the high ceilings and elaborate cornices, the original polished floor boards, and windows with fantastic views of the grounds, even if they were a little overgrown. The bathroom was dated, but again he could see the potential, which made Quentin smile. One day, whenever that may be, he knew the château would be outstanding.

Ava heard the stairs creak when Quentin came back downstairs. She’d been in the library, half envisioning practical design ideas, half fantasising about some far off future she might get to spend here with Sara.

“It’s gotten quiet down here,” Quentin said. “No Zari?”

“She’s upstairs measuring something in her’s and Behrad’s rooms for the dozenth time. She’s so eager to start decorating, but there’s a lot that needs to happen before we get to that stage,” Ava explained, stepping out into the hallway.

“Who’s decorating my room?” Quentin asked.

“Umm…” Ava looked askance. Quentin’s room was one of the four that had yet to be allocated. “Well, it - I’m - that hasn’t been decided yet.”

“No rush,” said Quentin. “It’s liveable.”

“Well, we all live on the Waverider, but at least you don’t have to share a bathroom.”

“Ah, yes. Sara’s told me all about the infamous Waverider bathroom,” Quentin said.

“I didn’t think I’d be doing this without Sara,” Ava confessed. “Actually, at the beginning of the year, this was something I never thought I’d be doing at all, but then of course everything happened and Sara inherited the house and now we have to do it up, because Oliver wanted her to have it, and now I…” Ava trailed off.

“Yeah,” Quentin sighed. “I miss her too.”

“Yeah,” Ava exhaled, her shoulders drooping.

“One time, when Sara was in first grade at school they had their athletics carnival coming up,” Quentin began, looking around the hallway, not sure what had sparked the memory. “I thought I’d be able to go, but a couple of days before our shifts were changed, and so I was set to be working. Now, the girls were used to me working at odd times, missing out on some things, but being there for others. This time, however, Sara was not happy. She burst into tears and ran off to cry in her bedroom. I didn’t understand what the matter was, and Laurel just took it all in her stride. After Sara calmed down a bit I went to talk to her. She told me all about her new sneakers, and how they’d been learning to do long-jump and shot-put and hurdles at school. Eventually she got around to why she’d been upset. The problem wasn’t that I couldn’t be there, it was that I’d said that I would be, and now I couldn’t. I - I don’t know where I’m going with this,” Quentin said, looking at Ava.

“That’s ok,” Ava said. She liked the idea of little Sara getting excited about sneakers and sports.

Quentin gave a small smile. “I worked thousands of shifts in my life, and most of them all just blur together, but I remember that one. A minor car accident, a couple of drunks getting into a fight, and a domestic call-out that once we arrived, they claimed nothing was wrong so there was nothing we could do. I got home about nine-thirty, and Sara had waited up. She sat on my lap while I tried to eat dinner and gave me a step-by-step recount of the athletics carnival. I gotta admit, sometimes I still wish it was as simple as a cuddle and a chat to make everything all right.”

“I really miss her,” Ava mumbled, unable to meet Quentin’s eye, afraid that she would cry. She sat down heavily on the bottom step.

“Truth is, it doesn’t get any easier,” Quentin sighed, sitting down beside Ava.

Ava swallowed, not sure if hearing that made her feel better or worse. At the very least, Quentin truly understood how she was feeling. Sara was a part of his heart, too, and he’d been through this before.

“I know you’re all doing everything you can to find her,” Quentin went on. “And I know we can’t lose hope, but getting your hopes up too high… It’s so hard, Ava. Having to pretend you’re ok when you’re not. Having someone missing… you’re never ok. Your mind constantly goes to the worst possible scenarios. We both know what Sara’s been through, and to think she might be going through something even close to that again… god, it just breaks your heart.”

A sob escaped Ava. Quentin wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, memories of comforting Laurel in this same way over extremely similar circumstances rushing back.

“But you’re right,” Ava said, trying to get a hold of her emotions.

“You have no idea how much I hate that,” Quentin said, holding Ava a little tighter.

…

A few days later, Ava returned to the château. She’d let Quentin know she was coming, and was unsurprised to find the front door and a number of the downstairs windows open, as it was a lovely mild morning.

“Good morning, Ava,” Quentin said, stopping halfway down the stairs as Ava entered. Ava hadn’t expected to see him in sport shorts and a t-shirt.

“Hi,” Ava said.

“Just finished my morning exercises,” Quentin said. “If you give me a minute to get changed, we can go up to the shops and grab some food.”

“Oh, ok,” Ava said, having never been to any of the shops in town. Quentin disappeared back up the stairs with a smile, and Ava noticed that the iron balustrades were gleaming like new. She had no idea that they had been so tarnished and dull, or that they would come up so well.

Quentin reappeared before Ava had time to drift into any of the other rooms downstairs.

“The balustrade has come up really well,” Ava said, genuinely impressed.

“Nothing a bit of steel wool, polish and elbow grease couldn’t get looking good again,” Quentin said proudly. He’d insisted on being given tasks around the house to do, claiming that no job was too small or too boring. Polishing the balustrades had been what had come to Ava’s mind, and Quentin had embraced the task. “I’ll finish it later today, so I hope you have something else lined up for me.”

Ava thought for a moment. “There’s the hall table which needs to be sanded and re-stained. Plus a few bits and pieces that need polishing, including a couple of swords Sara bought.”

“Sounds like that’ll be the next few days sorted, then,” Quentin said.

“I kind of feel like I’m making you work during your vacation, though,” Ava said. “If you don’t want to…”

“Ava, I absolutely want to,” Quentin said. “Mindless work like polishing balustrades has been exactly what I’ve needed. My baby girl is out there somewhere in the universe, I’m trying to run a city, and this is the first proper vacation I’ve had in years. And it really is a proper vacation even if I am spending it cleaning and polishing; the house doesn’t even have wifi and I’m not connecting to international roaming just to check my work emails.”

“Oh, yeah, we should probably get the internet connected,” Ava said, making a mental note to ask Gideon to organise that. “And you’re welcome here any time. Even if you just want to come for a weekend, we can use the time couriers. And for what it’s worth, I think Sara would really like that you’re here.”

“Thanks,” Quentin smiled. “I like to think that too. And I’ll let you know about the offer to use those magic future-tech portals of yours. Come on, time now to go get some breakfast.”

They locked up downstairs and headed down the long driveway then along the side of the road to the town. Ava realised that she felt very comfortable walking with Quentin while he talked about nothing in particular. He made her feel safe, and as though she could be vulnerable with him. Ava wondered if this was how someone was supposed to feel towards a father-figure.

Ava had never paid much attention to the town on which the château sat on the outskirts of. As well as the single-platform train station, there was the seventeenth-century Eglise Saint-Étienne, and a few shops, including a small hardware and stockfeed store, a butcher, greengrocer, small supermarket and the boulangerie, where they were heading.

“Salut Jean-Baptiste!” Quentin smiled when they entered.

“Ah, salut, Quentin,” the baker smiled.

“You’ve already made friends with the baker?” Ava asked, looking at the various pastries behind the glass, and the trays of bread behind them.

“Of course,” Quentin said. “He knows I’m here for a fortnight, and I’m a good customer. C’est Ava, ma fille… umm, in-law? What’s the word? Well, elle est mariée à ma fille? Is that right?” Quentin tried explaining to Jean-Baptiste, not sure how much English the baker spoke, as Quentin had always used his broken French in the boulangerie.

“Ah, très bien. Salut Ava,” said Jean-Baptiste with a smile.

“Salut,” said Ava, her heart skipping a beat when her mind finally worked the translation of what Quentin had said while Jean-Baptiste set about collecting what seemed to be Quentin’s regular order.

“Hope you don’t mind,” Quentin said a few minutes later as they walked back to the château with a paper bag with a baguette and a couple of sweet pastries, while they each nibbled on a still-warm croissant. “You went a little bit pale when I said that.”

“Pardon?” Ava asked, having been caught up in her own thoughts while they walked in companionable silence.

“Did you understand what I said to Jean-Baptiste? I’m sorry if I over-stepped the mark, but between some things that Sara has said, and… well, I don’t really know how else to refer to you, so I’m sorry if I - ”

“You did catch me off guard,” Ava confessed, blushing. “But you’re not entirely wrong,” she said, giving Quentin a small smile. “Obviously, nothing is legal or official or anything, but… we - we have promised in our own way.”

Quentin smiled proudly. “Wonderful,” he said.

A small smile crept onto Ava’s lips. “I know I can’t really hope too much, and I can hardly plan for the rest of the week, let alone further into the future, but maybe one day in the garden at the château… it would be nice, you know? To make it official.”

“You give me the date, and I’ll be there in my best suit,” Quentin said. “Hell, I might even buy a new best suit.”

Ava laughed despite herself. “To go with our by-then newly renovated house and gardens?”

“Exactly,” Quentin said. “Can’t show up in the same suit I wear to the office every day, or the one I wear to funerals. I’ll need a new shirt and tie too. And new shoes. This is expensive already!”

“But I can hardly dare to hope…” Ava said, hope and dread swirling together inside her. She took another bite of the flakey, buttery croissant, eating for comfort as much as anything else.

“Hey, wherever she is right now, Sara is fighting like hell to come home for this very reason,” Quentin said.

Ava swallowed and nodded, knowing somewhere deep down that that was true.


	6. Chapter 6

After Quentin returned to Star City, Ava compiled a list of the next set of jobs which needed to be done that required little to no imagination or design. They had to get internet connected to the château. A chimneysweep would come to clean out the chimneys so they at least had the option of lighting a fire in one of the dozen or so fireplaces in the house during the winter. The driveway needed to be fixed up and resurfaced. The rusting front gates would be repaired and repainted in their original glossy dark green. The brick front fence would be cleaned and repaired as necessary, and the other fencing around grounds to the château would be replaced with something a bit nicer than the basic wire fencing currently in place. Ava wanted the distinction between the grounds and the paddocks to be clearer, and hoped that Sara wouldn’t object. Gideon immediately set about organising quotes and tradespeople, passing her recommendations onto Ava to approve.

It warmed Ava’s heart when she received an email from Ray Palmer saying he would love to have a look at the cellar and see if he could figure out a ventilation system for it, and was happy to come whenever it suited Ava or someone else to collect him with a time-courier and grant him access to the château. Ava felt that having many of the Legends, past or present, involved helped to make the château feel more personal, rather than just a big old house which could be owned by anyone.

Ava forced herself to remain claim and rational, though some days it was easier said than done. Getting each of these tasks done would probably take until Christmastime, but thinking that far ahead made Ava feel ill. That would mean that Sara would have been missing for over six months. One day at a time, Ava told herself. One day at a time.

Thanksgiving rolled around, and with it the Black Friday sales which saw Zari keen to take Ava along to the Sink, Shower ’n’ Stuff Megastore outside of Metropolis to snap up some bargains. If Zari had noticed that _French Style and Decoration_ had reappeared in the library after Ava had taken it months ago before Sara disappeared, and _French House Chic_ had disappeared, Zari was diplomatic enough not to say, but the adventure to Sink, Shower ’n’ Stuff felt like something she could press for.

“I know we’re going to buy a lot of antiques and all of that,” Zari said, trying to get a definite yes out of Ava. “But there are some things you need brand new.”

“I do have a lot of kitchen gadgets from my old place,” Ava said.

Zari raised her eyebrows.

“I haven’t always lived on the Waverider. I did have an apartment.”

“Huh,” said Zari, taking that as as much of a yes as she was going to get. “Well, we’re going anyway.”

Ava couldn’t think of any more excuses, and had a sneaking suspicion that Gideon was on Zari’s side, as no pressing issues with the timeline came along to prevent the shopping trip.

As soon as they arrived at Sink, Shower ’n’ Stuff, Ava wanted to leave. It seemed that all of New England had had the same idea and were jammed inside the megastore.

“This is literally my own, personal hell,” Ava mumbled, wondering if this would be easier if she knew that Sara was waiting for her back on the Waverider, as Zari led the way deeper into the belly of the beast.

“Oh, please,” Zari said, expertly weaving her way through the crowds.

“Nope, it actually, literally is,” Ava said, holding onto Zari’s sleeve so as not to lose her.

Zari was absolutely in her element, and once they were away from the hectic entrance Ava was able to relax a little more and managed to find a couple of kitchen gadgets at very good prices that she didn’t already own. She also bought two-dozen every-day glasses, some baking equipment, and an extremely soft throw-blanket for the bedroom. Zari proclaimed the shopping trip to be a success, and Ava had to agree.

By mid-December, the last of the batch of jobs at the château had been completed. Even Mick had finally shown some interest in the project, collecting and cutting firewood from the neighbouring woods, and mumbling something about it having grown closer to the house than it would have been originally. Ray came up with a very impressive ventilation system for the cellar, and Ava was toying with the idea of handing over the rest of its redesign to him, being the only person she knew who was familiar with the original Arrow cave. She wouldn’t have even minded if he wanted to get Felicity involved, but still couldn’t bring herself to ask him to do so, holding onto hope against all odds that Sara would return before Ava had to plan for the next stage.

With Christmas (and Sara’s birthday) fast approaching, Ava was able to put the renovations on hold for a few weeks, and Gideon agreed it was impossible to get tradespeople to start on new jobs at this time of year. With that in mind, Ava decided that the team deserved a day out.

“We can go to Paris,” Zari said, quickly taking the lead. “They have beautiful Christmas lights and the city looks amazing at this time of year. We’ll let everyone do whatever they want during the day, and I’ll book the restaurant for dinner.”

“Z…”

“Trust me, Ava,” Zari said.

Ava took a deep breath, shook her head and smiled. “All right. You can organise this.”

“Yay! Gidget, I’m going to need a period-appropriate Michelin guidebook!”

“I’m sending a digital copy to your phone now, Ms Tarazi,” Gideon said.

“Wait, Zari…” Ava tried to protest.

“What’s the point in having all this money if I can’t spend it on my friends?” Zari said. “Plus my money is at 2040 rates, so this dinner is really not a big deal.”

Ava couldn’t argue with that.

Lita joined the Legends for their day out in Paris, and had come up with a list of things she wanted to see in whirlwind tour around the city with Mick. Since Zari was spending the day with Ava, John had convinced Gary to come with him on a Paris Crypts tour in the morning, and had agreed to go with Gary on a tour of the Palais Garnier in the afternoon. Astra and Spooner were making a beeline for the Eiffel Tower, with plans for a Siene River cruise in the afternoon and lunch at Ladurée on the Champs-Élysées in-between. Nate and Behrad were heading for the Musée d’Orsay, then the Arc de Triomphe, stopping “probably for a burger somewhere” for lunch.

Ava and Zari’s first stop was at the Dior Paris Saint-Honore store, where Ava wanted to buy a bottle of roll-on J’Adore perfume for Sara.

“You know you can buy that in every department store in the world?” Zari asked once they’d left and were making their way to Angelina Paris for a coffee and pastry. Zari had been complaining that totem-Zari had been appearing in her dreams ever since Ava had agreed on the pre-Christmas Paris expedition, insisting that she eat at least a couple of pastries or cakes.

“But that’s not really the point, is it?” Ava said. She had felt the need to buy something for Sara, even though the chances of her returning before Christmas now seemed impossibly slim.

“At least they gave you some little samples,” Zari said, pulling her coat-collar up against the bitter wind. “But you really should have let me buy you that bag. Or the silk scarf.”

“The scarf cost a thousand euros,” Ava said. “And I don’t even want to know how much the bag cost.”

“Well, next Christmas I’m surprising you with it, and then you can’t argue with me,” Zari said primly.

They stopped for morning tea in the opulent surroundings of Angelina Paris, where they enjoyed a flakey croissant, a selection of macaroons, and the famous Angelina hot chocolate. Once they were very full of the excellent food, they continued down the Rue de Rivoli to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. They both knew that they’d never get through the whole museum in the amount of time they had, so consulted the map and worked out which galleries interested them the most. Even then, they didn’t linger to look at every artefact, choosing to focus on the objects and areas they didn’t want to miss. Time passed quickly as they made their way around the museum, and a few hours later Ava found herself in need of a sit-down and something to eat. Her brain was close to overloading, and though Zari didn’t admit as much, Ava had the feeling she felt the same.

“I’m guessing you have plans for the rest of the afternoon?” Ava asked as they sat down to a late lunch in the museum’s Loulou restaurant. Ava would have happily returned to the Waverider for a couple of hours before dinner for a lie-down, but had a feeling that Zari had more plans for the afternoon.

“We’ll wander up to the Metro at Châtelet, then take a number 4 train to Porte de Clignancourt.”

“Porte de - wait, are we going to Marché aux puces?” Ava asked.

Zari grinned. “I know that the morning is the traditional time to go,” she said. “But at the end of the day you can get some real bargains, as the smaller store holders really don’t want to have to pack everything up again, and the larger shops will just want to make sales before Christmas. Trust me, it’ll be fun.”

“After three hours in the museum, you want to go antique shopping?” Ava asked, mostly just wanting to take off her boots.

“I also want to go to both the Paris Exhibition 1889 and 1900, but we’ll work that out with Gideon another time.”

“All right,” Ava chuckled, unable to resist Zari’s enthusiasm. “Once we finish up here, we’ll go to the market.”

Despite being the middle of the afternoon when the arrived, the Marché aux puces was as busy as ever, with seemingly everyone having the same idea to come in the afternoon, most likely with the hopes of scoring a bargain, or just for some last-minute Christmas shopping. The world outside the market quickly disappeared as they became surrounded by every sort of product available, from handbags to bronze horse statues, gilt mirrors to empty wine barrels, desk chairs to full dining settings.

“Wait a sec, Zari, I want to have a look at this,” Ava said, stopping at a stall with a table filled with monogramed linen.

“Don’t you already have some?” Zari asked.

“Yeah, but I want some for Sara,” Ava said, deciding that she’d like to surprise Sara with some towels. Today it was easier to pretend that Sara was off on a mission somewhere, or was needed by Barry or the old Arrow team for some superhero something rather than the fact that she was… wherever she was.

“Like this?” Zari asked, holding up a pile of white towels with a red stripe down the side, similar though not exactly the same the _A.S._ ones Sara had found for Ava what felt like a lifetime ago, and with _S.L._ embroidered on the corner.

“Perfect,” Ava grinned. “Should we get a plain set too?”

“Why not?” Zari said, grabbing a set of the unmonogramed towels. “The more you buy, the easier it is to haggle.”

A few minutes later, after getting a small discount on the towels, they continued on through the myriad of stalls. Ava wasn’t sure what she was looking for, and Zari seemed to point out every second item. After the hours spent in the museum, Ava’s brain was full, and she wasn’t really in the mood for browsing through the antique stalls. Zari announced that she wanted to go and see her friend in the fabric stall, so Ava followed along.

“Oh, Zari, look,” Ava said, grabbing Zari’s coat.

“More towels?” Zari asked, not sure what had caught Ava’s eye.

A smile crept onto Ava’s face. “It’s perfect,” she said, looking at an Art-Deco decanter set, with six matching full-sized whisky glasses. There was something about the cut of the glass on the decanter, its lid, and the glasses, as well as the patterns painted in black and red enamel decorating the glassware which was just perfect. There were a few small scratches and dints in the enamel, but the glass itself was in perfect condition, and Ava didn’t mind the couple of scratches. It showed that the glassware had lived. “I’m getting it.”

“It won’t be cheap,” Zari said, already preparing herself to haggle. Her French wasn’t much better than Ava’s, but she’d learnt all the phrases needed to drive the price down, and she hated watching Ava buy anything at the market as she always caved too quickly.

“I don’t care,” Ava replied. “Whatever price you can get, I’ll pay. It’s a birthday gift, so it’s not coming out of the house budget.”

“Pay for it however you like,” Zari said. “But you’re right. That set says ‘Sara’ all over.”

Ava nodded, and Zari set about starting conversation with the stall holder.

Half an hour later, loaded up with the towels, a box with the glassware carefully packaged inside, French Imperial-era wall sconces and a chair in need of sanding and a polish which Zari said was for Quentin’s bathroom (“It has arrows on it. Clearly we have to buy it.”), a desk lamp for Quentin’s room, and tassels for the curtains in Behrad’s bedroom, Ava and Zari decided it was time to find a quiet corner to use the time courier to go to the château to drop off their purchases and freshen up before going to dinner with the team.

Ava was relieved when the stepped through the portal into the cool, dark upstairs hallway of the château. Zari immediately set about turning on lights, but Ava quietly made her way down the hallway to her bedroom, leaving the light off as it wasn’t yet entirely dark outside, and the light streaming in from the hallway was more than enough to see by. After the busy, bustling, noisy, crowded city, the cool, dark château was a huge relief. Ava crossed the bedroom and knelt down, positioning the box of glassware and Dior bag with the perfume and monogramed towels in it in the place where hopefully, one day, Sara’s bedside table would go.

“Merry Christmas and happy birthday, babe,” Ava whispered, and stood back up. She went over to the window and looked out at the bare deciduous trees and the faint outline of the fence and fields beyond. Ava was glad that they’d had the fence around the grounds replaced. Slowly, once the weather improved, she planned to do more in the garden because inside… Ava could hear Zari making a lot of noise down the hallway. Ava sighed. The next steps were clear. They had to get the builder in. Ava knew it wasn’t fair making anyone wait any longer.

Standing at the window, listening to Zari thump about further down the hall, Ava could almost imagine that this was home. That she was escaping for a little while from raucous a party she had been preparing for days, and that any moment Sara would silently enter the room and stand beside Ava, leaving the party she was no doubt enjoying immensely just to check that Ava was all right.

“Maybe next year,” Ava whispered to the emptiness, and turned from the window, going to find Zari so they could return to Paris for their festive dinner.


	7. Chapter 7

By time Gideon found a builder with the experience and attributes Ava was after and he was able to start at the château, it was the middle of February. The first job would be the gutting of the kitchen and all the upstairs bathrooms. Ava knew that the original wooden floors in some of the upstairs bathrooms would be beyond saving, and was prepared to have those tiled instead. After the demolition work, they’d have the walls straightened and new plaster hung as necessary. Gideon was currently searching for a painter and a floor polisher, and had given the electrician and plumber notice that their services would be needed again in the coming weeks and months.

On the weekend before the demolition was set to start, most of the Legends, including Ray as Nora was working and he was forever texting Ava with offers of assistance, headed to the château to do some simpler jobs around the place. John and Gary had an exorcism to attend to, and it was presumed Mick was in his room, but he expressed no interest at wanting to help out, so he was left to it. Ava didn’t want anyone hanging out in the château while there were holes in the walls and floors, and plaster dust floating in the air, so for the next few weeks, the house would more or less be off-limits, save for those going to let the tradespeople in.

Zari immediately got herself set up on a drop sheet in the living room with the sun pouring in and the windows ajar, so she could polish the wall sconces and candelabras for the bedrooms she was decorating, and had roped Behrad into helping her. Now that the internet was connected, Zari had brought along her portable bluetooth speaker, and the sounds of her happy playlist echoed through the effectively empty house. Nate had collected Ray using the time courier, and Ray had brought along a shovel, rake, garden shears and a small saw. They’d set out for the garden with the aims of a bit of garden archaeology as Nate had his suspicious about the positioning of some old apple trees, and to figure out where the border for the woods should be.

Ava wandered around the château in a bit of a daze. Helping out Nate and Ray would probably be the best thing to do. She had some vague plans for the garden, mostly involving hydrangeas, lavender, and perhaps a collection of herbs, but was thinking they should visit some more gardens especially as the months rolled into spring and summer for some real inspiration. Quentin Lance had already asked if he’d be able to come a stay over Easter, and Ava had to reply honestly, saying that she had no idea what state the house would be in, but if it was liveable, then he would be most welcome. He’d be wanting something to do too, and she thought getting some gardening plans in place might be just the thing.

“Umm, hey, Ava?” Astra asked.

Ava looked away from the upstairs hallway wallpaper she’d been staring at, wondering which tradesperson was responsible for its removal, and what style and colour she might replace it with. Zari would of course have dozens of ideas, but it wasn’t really Zari’s input Ava wanted.

“Yeah?” Ava replied, realising she much look a little mad standing in the hallway like that.

“Umm, so, I was wondering,” Astra went on awkwardly, which was unlike her. “So, I wasn’t on the team last year when you guys offered bedrooms to people, and there’s still a few free, and umm… I was wondering, maybe… would it be ok if Spooner and I had one?”

“You’d like to do up one of the rooms?” Ava asked.

Astra smiled bashfully and nodded. “I hope I’m not overstepping the mark or anything, but we’d really like to.”

There were three bedrooms which hadn’t been allocated. “You know which rooms haven’t been claimed?”

“Yeah,” Astra said. “And, umm… we know which one we’d like, too.”

A sudden, unexpected wave of loneliness and longing crashed into Ava. She swallowed hard and looked at Astra, forcing a smile. “Fine,” she said. “That will be fine. Make your claim. Usual rules. Try to keep around 10-15 thousand euros for the renovation of the bedroom and bathroom, but don’t worry about labour costs, those are seperate. It can’t be all white and hospital-looking, and you have to ok all major purchases with me.”

Astra grinned, too excited to go and find Spooner to notice the change in Ava’s disposition. “Thanks so much Ava! This is brilliant! Thanks!”

“Of course,” Ava said, forcing a smile despite feeling as though she was going to crack. She began to drag herself to her bedroom, when Nate raced up the stairs, an excited grin plastered to his face.

“Ava! You have to come and see what Ray and I found!” Nate exclaimed.

“What is it?”

“We found a fountain! Mick was right that the woods had overgrown it’s limits, and we’ve been making a start on pruning it back, because you can tell by the larger trees were the actual line should be and we found this fountain and there’s a statue lying in it and we think it’ll all connect and Ray’s still out there trying to clear it so we can figure out where the water connects and see if we can turn it on,” Nate said, his words all running into one another as he tried to get everything out at once.

Ava gave a nod. “I’ll come out soon,” she said, forcing a smile.

“Ok, great! I’m going to find a broom. And wherever we put the shovel. This fountain is going to be amazing, Ava!”

“Great,” Ava said. She thought about telling Nate not to run down the stairs, but he had already gone, and the wave of loneliness was still trying to drag her under. Ava hurried to her room and closed the door before anyone else could interrupt. She collapsed onto the armchair, and pulled the soft, plush blanket around her body while she tried to control her breathing. It wasn’t the time to figure out what had brought on the feeling, Ava knew she just had to ride it out. She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around herself.

Once the feeling began to fade, Ava took her phone out of her pocket. She flicked it open to the home screen, and stared at the call button for a moment, before opening the phone app and hitting call.

“Captain Sharpe,” came Gideon’s ever-pleasant voice. “Is there some way in which I can assist? A translation issue? Measurements for curtains or wallpaper?” Gideon had become as interested in the renovations as everyone else.

“I - ” Ava started and swallowed hard. “Gideon, I’m worried I’m starting to forget Sara.”

“I do not understand the comment, Captain Sharpe. Is Captain Lance disappearing from your thoughts?”

“No, I - ” Ava inhaled deeply. “I hardly think of anything else. But I’m not entirely sure that when I imagine her voice if - if it’s actually hers. Or just something that my mind has constructed, which is close, but not quite right. Same with her laugh, and - and…” Ava sobbed and wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve. “They way her hand felt in mine… her arms around me… I - I think I’m forgetting what she felt like, Gideon.” Ava’s lip trembled. She clenched her jaw to try and control her emotions. She didn’t know why she was talking to Gideon, but anyone else would want to comfort her and tell her that it was all going to be ok, when everything wasn’t close to being ok.

“I don’t feel real without her, Gideon,” Ava said, no longer able to stop the tears. “I feel like I’m slowly drifting away and she was what made me real. All of this… everything… without Sara, I… I…” Ava sobbed.

“You are real in all the ways that matter, Captain Sharpe,” Gideon said.

Now Ava wished she did have someone to give her a hug.

“I do have recordings of Captain Lance, if you would like to - ”

“No, I don’t need to be reminded that you watch us all the time,” Ava said, considering hanging up. Calling Gideon had been a mistake. This was all a mistake.

“I mean recording made purposefully by Captain Lance for you, Captain.”

“What?” Ava asked with a swallow.

“She made recordings for a number of eventualities and - “

“What the hell, Gideon!? She’s been missing nine months and you’re only telling me this now?!” Ava cried.

“I am following Captain Lance’s instructions, Captain Sharpe. I do not suspect she thought it would have taken so long.”

“Dammit, Gideon,” Ava said and sniffed. “I… Wait, did Nate say he found a fountain?” she asked. Her mind was so muddled, simultaneously full of a thousand different thoughts, and nothing but Sara.

“I do not know what Mr Heywood said he found, Captain,” Gideon said. “But survey plans for the château and grounds from 1904 do show that there was a fountain in the garden.”

“You have survey plans from 1904?”

“I have dug through the archives to discover what I can about Captain Lance’s property, Captain Sharpe.”

“Why didn’t you say so?”

“You never asked, Captain.”

Ava gave an exasperated sigh. “Can you send it through?”

“The plans or the the video of Captain Lance?”

Ava hesitated for a moment. “Both,” she swallowed.

“I will send the documentation I have collected in regards to the château to you via email,” Gideon said. “And the video of Captain Lance in a message.”

“Thanks,” Ava said and hung up. Immediately her phone pinged.

**Gideon:** New Message

Ava opened the message and inhaled sharply at seeing the still of Sara in a black tank-top, her hair in soft waves around her shoulders. Ava wiped her eyes again. To see an image of Sara she hadn’t seen before… Ava’s thumb hovered over the picture for a moment before she tapped on it to play the video.

“Hey babe!” Sara said, grinning and waving at the camera.

Ava almost dropped her phone. She put her hand up to her mouth to stop herself from crying out. “Hi babe,” she breathed, as though the video version of Sara could hear her.

“Ok, so, if you’re seeing this video, it means I’m missing,” Sara-in-the-video continued. “Hopefully I haven’t been gone too long, but… well, I’ve asked Gideon to send this to you when she thinks you need it most. So, I’m guessing you’d be ok for a few days, or weeks even, because I know how strong and brave you are, but if I’m gone for longer than that… well, hi babe,” she said with a small smile and another wave. “Wherever I am, I know that I’ll be missing you like crazy too. I’ve already done this, this having been separated from you when I was stuck at the Vanishing Point and - god, it hurts, Ava. It hurts so damn much. You get stuck at this weird point between utter hopelessness and complete faith that somehow, against the odds, everything is going to be ok. With my past… well, you know my history. But the thing is babe, I have a history of coming back, too. And you can believe me, that wherever I am when you watch this, I am doing everything possible to come back. I have never had more reason to come home than I do now, and that is because of you. Having you, knowing you’re there, that means everything. Look after the Waverider, the château and the team for me. Look after yourself too. I love you, Ava Sharpe. Always.”

Sara blew a kiss at the camera and gave another wave, then the video stopped.

Ava took a moment to remember to breathe. She reached into her bag, pulled out the packet of tissues, wiped her eyes once again and blew her nose. Sara wouldn’t want her to be sitting here all alone, feeling sad and sorry for herself. She’d want her to be helping out, making improvements on the house and grounds.

“I love you too, babe,” Ava breathed, her lip trembling. She gave herself a moment to cry before trying to tidy herself up again, going into the bathroom and splashing some water on her face. Ava looked around the bathroom. Perhaps she could come up with some new layout ideas for it. The door and window obviously had to stay where they were, along with the positioning of the plumbing which minimised the design options, but that was good, Ava thought. Between those restrictions and Sara’s requests for a double vanity and large bath, Ava couldn’t see room for a shower as well. Perhaps there was some way? They’d need room for the toilet too. Where would the towel rack go? And what sort of curtains or blinds would they get so people couldn’t see straight into the bathroom? And what…

“Nate found a fountain?” Ava asked the bathroom. She knew she looked like a wreck, but she didn’t care. Gideon had done research on the château. Sara had left messages incase of different eventualities. Astra and Spooner were taking care of one of the other ensuite bedrooms. Nate and Ray had found a fountain. Sara.

Ava grabbed her coat and headed outside to find Nate and Ray and check on whatever they’d been doing, expecting to be underwhelmed, but was actually quite impressed when she saw the piles of prunings before spotting the boys, and what was undoubtably the basin on a twelve-foot diameter fountain.

“Wow,” Ava said, shoving her hands into her pockets against the cold. “We have a fountain.”

“A fountain full of a lot of mud and plants that shouldn’t be there,” Ray beamed. “But a fountain all the same.”

“We haven’t found any huge cracks or anything else that should make it too hard to properly restore,” Nate said. He looked at Ava. “You ok?”

Ava gave a small shrug. “I’ll tell you later.”

Nate nodded.

“We have no idea where or how this connects to the water, though,” Ray said. “Oh, and there’s the other basins that go inside the fountain, which have been dismantled at some stage and will have to be put back together.”

Ava had a look at the dirty but ornate, much narrower two-tiered basin which should be standing in the middle of the fountain and guessed it was about eight feet tall when installed. “This - this is amazing,” Ava said. “I had no idea this was here.”

“Neither did we,” Nate said. “We just wanted to find where the garden was supposed to end.”

“And Nate is sure that a kitchen garden was once over there,” Ray said, pointing with the garden shears towards the old apple trees.

“I think there might have been a low wall to protect it too,” Nate said.

“There’s one way to find out,” Ava said, pulling out her phone. “Gideon sent me a whole lot of documents she’s collected about the house, including surveys. It’s possible they show what the grounds looked like.” Ava opened the email from Gideon and scrolled through the attachments before opening the one of the surveys from 1904.

“That’s it, look!” Nate exclaimed, leaning over Ava’s shoulder. “There’s the fountain, that would be the wall around the kitchen gardens, there’s paths there, and it looks like there used to be some other building over there.”

“A stable perhaps?” Ray suggested, also leaning over to have a look. “Or carriage house?”

“Nice work, Gideon,” Nate said. “Thoughts, Ava?”

“Well, we don’t need a stable,” Ava said, pocketing her phone. “But it would be nice to get the fountain working again and the area around here properly cleaned up. We can have a proper look at those survey maps later, and use it to figure out how far back the woods should be.”

“I think we need to go and visit some other gardens for inspiration,” Nate said. “The fountain will demand some sort of planting done around it.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Ava said. It would be nice to have a change from interiors for a little while, she thought, especially while works were happenings that didn’t need her input. “This will be such a nice surprise for Sara,” she said, before catching a look between Nate and Ray. Ava’s heart dropped.

“It will be,” Ray said quickly. “Maybe we could even add lights. Multi-coloured lights, so it’s all lit-up at night. Imagine that from the dining room window.”

“And the bedrooms which look out this side of the house,” Nate added.

Ava gave a smile which wasn’t entirely forced, but not completely genuine either. “I will let you get back to your pruning and digging,” she said. “Come find me if you find anything else.”

“Ok!” Ray grinned.

“You’re welcome to help out if you’d like,” Nate said.

Ava looked around. “Yeah, all right,” she said. “Where do you want me to start?”

Nate set Ava up with a pair of garden shears, and Ava found it oddly therapeutic to hack away at the overgrown plants. She allowed her mind to wander while Nate and Ray prattled on to one another.

A couple of raised garden beds would be nice near those apple trees not far from the back entrance to the château, Ava thought. Everything planted in them would have to be fairly hardy, as they couldn’t get out to the château every day, and it wouldn’t be nice to comeback to a garden full of shrivelled plants. A couple of roses here near the fountain and perhaps some stone seats. An outdoor sitting area and some nice hydrangeas were definitely needed in that space she’d thought would be just right for them from the very first visit. Ava sighed. That very first visit was a year ago. She looked up at the sky.

“I hope you come home soon, babe,” she whispered to the patchy clouds, the gaps of blue sky matching the colour of Sara’s eyes. Ava nearly gagged and laughed at her own sappy romantic thoughts. She sighed. “Please, Sara. It - I miss you and I really want you to come home.”


	8. Chapter 8

Ava wasn’t ashamed to admit that she loved working with Gideon to coordinate the various tradespeople, and it gave her something to think about that wasn’t related to the design, or lack there of, of the rest of the house that she and Sara had intended to renovate together. The builders came first to gut the kitchen and the upstairs bathrooms, leaving the two downstairs powder-rooms for now so that there were at least some ammenities in the house. When the Legends knew that the builders had left for the day after pulling out the kitchen, Ava, Zari and Nate went to have a look, and Ava laughed when they entered the kitchen.

“What?” Zari asked, looking around at the large, empty room.

“It’s ridiculous how much better it looks already!” Ava smiled. “Just with those awful cabinets and benches gone, and that stupidly placed island-bench. And no more ugly brown tiles!”

Nate and Zari exchanged a smile, but they had to agree with Ava.

“It looks bigger too,” Zari said.

“You can really see the potential now,” Nate said, just happy that Ava was happy more than anything else.

“Perhaps the painters could do an undercoat in here once they start,” Ava said. She had the painters lined up to begin the following week. They’d start downstairs, firstly removing the wallpaper from the rooms that had it, and washing the painted walls and ceilings. After that, they’d move onto re-painting the downstairs ceiling and cornices, and fixing any damaged gilding where they could. Painting and re-wallpapering the rooms as appropriate could wait, Ava thought. Once the plumbers and tilers were done in the upstairs bathrooms, then the painters would repeat the process upstairs.

“Anything would be better than terrible-choice orange,” Zari said, just glad that the three bathrooms she was in charge of were currently lovely blank slates, and that the bathroom furniture, fittings and features she had chosen would be delivered and installed over the coming days and weeks.

A few days later, Ava and Nate took the morning off to visit Claude Monet’s gardens at Giverny. Gideon found a day of perfect weather in the middle of the week from a few years ago, as there wasn’t much to see at the gardens in early March, and mid-week helped a little bit with the crowds. Nate and Ava stepped through the time courier into the carpark minutes before opening time, and already the busloads of tourists and schoolchildren were arriving.

“I thought Gideon said it was going to be quiet?” Ava asked.

“I think for Giverny at this time of year, this is quiet,” Nate said, fiddling with their tickets as another bus pulled into the carpark.

It was nice to head out with just Nate, Ava thought, hoping that the rest of the team would manage for a few hours without them. She was getting better at suppressing thoughts which would loop through her mind where she wished again and again she could be doing this with Sara, as it was nice just to hang out with Nate. Would Sara even want to go looking at gardens for inspiration? Ava sighed to herself as the queue shuffled forward, knowing that Sara would go along with whatever Ava wanted.

Once inside the gardens, despite the crowds, the beauty of the gardens at the height of the season took away from any issues Ava had with the swarms of sightseers. She and Nate spent a lovely couple of hours wandering around and taking it all in. As much as they enjoyed seeing the famous lily pond, it was the Clos Normand garden full of roses, bulbs and other seasonal flowers which they really delighted in.

“Oooh, I like those tulips,” Ava said, admiring a flower bed full of perfectly shaped red tulips with what looked like a brush-stoke of bright yellow paint on each petal.

“You say that about pretty much everything,” Nate laughed. It had been far too long since he’d seen Ava this happy. “The peonies, the rhododendrons, azaleas, irises, lupins…” he teased lightly.

“We definitely need some tulips next season,” Ava said. “We’ll have to get a catalogue at the end of the summer and figure out what to order.”

“Mail order tulips? Ava Sharpe, who would have guessed you’d be such a gardener?”

“Ordering them is one thing, actually getting them to grow is another,” Ava said as they moved along to admire another flower bed. “I wish we could just transplant this whole garden to the château.”

“And the army of gardeners and volunteers that come with it?”

“Obviously,” Ava smirked. “Can you image Zari getting her hands dirty?”

“Absolutely not,” Nate said. “I like those maroon tulips with the white daffodils and pink - whatever that pink flower is.”

“I like those climbing roses on the frame.”

“I like the wisteria.”

“The château definitely needs some wisteria added somewhere.”

“Maybe we can build an archway?”

“That could work, though I’m not sure where. We definitely need to learn more about gardening,” Ava laughed. She was about to say that she liked all the pretty blue forget-me-nots filling the gaps between the other plants in certain beds, but the blue of the flowers was so close to the blue of Sara’s eyes, that she couldn’t get the words out. Everything seemed to remind her of the colour of Sara’s eyes. Ava had told Nate how she felt she was beginning to forget certain little things, but she knew she could live another sixty years and wouldn’t forget that colour blue.

“We need to visit more gardens,” Nate said. “And maybe get some books. I’m sure there’s a gift shop here where we could get a book about the garden.”

“Definitely,” Ava agreed. “And I’m guessing you have some plans for further garden visits?” she asked, glad that as well as his room, Nate was taking a special interest in the garden, as even if or when Sara did return, Ava was starting to wonder if they’d be able to do all the work that still needed to be done without some help from the rest of the Legends.

“I most certainly do,” Nate grinned.

…

Ava used the time courier to take Quentin from Star City to the château for the Easter long weekend. The various tradespeople had been excellent in prioritising the room he used in his previous stay at Ava’s request, and Zari, who was redesigning that room, was very excited to see one of her visions start to become a reality. Ava had to admit to herself that this amount of progress was making her feel better about the whole project too.

“Your bedroom isn’t finished yet, we haven’t had the floors re-polished and it’s not painted, but the bathroom was completed yesterday afternoon,” Ava said as they stepped through the portal into the château grounds.

“I’m looking forward to seeing we’re you’re at,” Quentin said. He took a deep breath of the fresh, country air. “Nice to get Star City out of the lungs, and that’s certainly the best way to travel.”

Ava smiled. “It’s a little bit easier than long-haul international flights,” she said.

“Just a bit.” Quentin looked around the grounds. “What is that over there?” he asked, noticing a concrete structure in an area than looked fairly recently cleaned up.

“Oh, it’s a fountain,” Ava said. “Nate and Ray found it back in February. Getting it working again is Ray’s current little project.”

“You found a fountain,” Quentin laughed. “Of course you did. This place is amazing. Ok, Ava, let’s have a look at the house.”

Ava led the way inside and up the stairs, commenting on some of the work which hard been done since Quentin’s last visit. As usual, she was very happy with how clean the tradespeople had left the house, especially with Quentin staying for a couple of nights.

“The plumbers will probably be here for another week,” Ava said, “And the tilers are working alongside them. The electrician was able to come yesterday to do the lighting in your bathroom as a special request, but we’ll wait until all the other bathrooms are finished until he comes back.”

“And your bathroom?”

Ava was glad she was walking ahead up the stairs so she didn’t have to meet Quentin’s eye. “Not a priority,” she said.

Quentin understood and let the topic slide. “So the painters have started downstairs?”

“Yeah, they’ve made a start,” Ava said, grateful for the conversation to move back to the recent works. “Getting all the walls and ceilings washed was a big job. They’ve done your bathroom, and now they’ve started on the ceilings downstairs while the other four bathrooms that we’re doing at the moment are finished off. We’ve got the flooring people lined up for upstairs too, but no date set yet.”

“So it’s all happening,” Quentin said proudly.

“Yeah,” Ava said, opening the door to Quentin’s room. “I guess it is.”

“Woah! Is that bed for me?” Quentin asked, entering the room, his eye immediately falling upon the large bed with a solid wooden frame, made-up with fresh off-white bedding and an assortment of decorative cushions sitting below the pillows in various tones of blue-grey, and a dark blue-grey faux-mink blanket draped neatly across the end of the bed.

Ava grinned. “Zari chose it. The bed frame is new, made by a local furniture maker Zari found out about, and it’s made of out recycled timber. The mattress is new, as are the linen sheets and other bed things. Zari also insisted on making it up all nicely, even though the room isn’t finished, and I think she wants to get another blanket. There is a desk for this room, but it’s still downstairs in the dining room, out of the way for now.”

“You can tell Zari that I think this is going to look great,” Quentin said, parking his bag against the wall.

“We’ve ordered a closet too, and some bedside tables,” Ava said. “Sorry there’s no curtains yet.”

“The room isn’t facing east, so that’s fine,” Quentin said. “Can we have a look at this bathroom?”

“Definitely,” Ava said. “Oh, mind that box, that’s other bits and pieces Zari has collected for the bedroom. She brought it up last night because some of the cushions were in there, so you can have a look at the wall sconces and desk lamp she’s found.”

Quentin stepped around the box and Ava opened the door to the ensuite bathroom. They were hit by the smell of fresh paint. Ava flicked on the lights to give the full effect.

“Oh, wow,” Quentin grinned, looking around the perfectly finished little bathroom. The basin, toilet, shower base, and vanity were white, with a clear glass door on the shower. The wall tiles were a soft, glossy stone colour with a slight ripple, and the floor tiles were a darker stone. The chrome tapware and other metalware was in a classic style, the mirror was frameless, but had classy bevelled edges, and the whole effect was softened by the antique chair piled with plush white towels and a small crystal vase with a posy of flowers sitting on the vanity next to the liquid soap dispenser.

“Well, this is definitely an upgrade from last time,” Quentin said. “If I ever decide to renovate my apartment in Star City, I’ll be calling Zari.”

Ava smiled, knowing Zari would love the praise. “I’ll be sure to let Zari know. You’ll have to let us know what the water pressure is like,” Ava said. “The plumber said it should be good, but no one’s actually showered under it yet.”

“I will definitely let you know,” Quentin said. “I hope you have a couple of jobs lined up for me to warrant the use of such a nice bathroom.”

“Not in the house,” Ava said as she turned off the lights and they stepped back into the bedroom. “But the weather is meant to be nice, if you’re happy to help in the garden?”

“Of course.”

Ava smiled. On her first couple of visits to the house, she hadn’t though that the grounds needed much work, but the more she saw of them, and since Ray and Nate had started on the pruning a couple of months ago, the more she saw that there was work to do. “Well, there’s some pruning that needs to be done. And, maybe… I’d like to go to a plant nursery. If you’d like to come with me…?” Ava asked, feeling awkward all of a sudden. “I sort of know what I want to get. I’ve been looking at a couple of books about plants and gardens, and…”

“I’d love to come,” Quentin grinned, putting Ava at ease. “So you’ve got a list?”

Ava nodded. “Not for specifics, but I know what sorts of plants. Gideon found a couple of good nurseries in the area, and sent me a list with the plant name translations.”

“You wanna go now?” Quentin asked.

“You don’t want to unpack or anything?” Ava asked.

“Nah, I’m good.”

“Ok,” Ava smiled, glad that Quentin had made the suggestion. “I’d like that. Oh, umm, Sara didn’t know what hydrangeas were called.”

Quentin laughed. “Sounds about right. I’ll get her a book about plants.”

“Probably one for kids, with lots of pictures.”

“Are we buying hydrangeas?”

Ava nodded. “Sara called them ‘the ultimate bisexual flowers’. She found a picture of some somewhere online when she was looking up French gardens,” Ava said, not adding that that had been about a year ago. The thought of that amount of time having passed made her heart ache. “And other plants too,” she said quickly, hoping Quentin hadn’t noticed any change in her manner. “Lavender, standard roses. I’d like to have a look at some fruit trees. Just have a browse and…”

“She’d be proud of you, Ava,” Quentin said, catching Ava’s eye and giving her a small smile. “Heck, I’m proud of you.”

Ava nodded, sure she’d choke on her words if she tried to speak.

“Come on, let’s go shopping. I’ll buy you something you like to cheer you up,” he said, turning away to find his sunglasses and wallet, and hide the tears which had suddenly appeared.

There was a pause.

“Nate and I went to Monet’s Garden at Giverny the other week,” Ava said, breaking the silence as she fiddled with the coordinates on the time courier. She didn’t want to cry when Quentin had only just arrived, and she’d been looking forward to seeing him again ever since the labourers had confirmed a couple of weeks ago that they’d be able to have his bathroom complete before Easter. “For garden inspiration and ideas. And just for a look around.”

“You met Monet?” Quentin asked.

“What? Oh, no, we just went to the garden. As tourists.”

“You live on a time-ship, and visited Giverny, but didn’t think to pop in to see Claude Monet himself?”

“I’m now thinking that was a huge oversight on Nate’s behalf,” Ava said. “He’s the historian after all.”

Quentin smiled as the portal opened into the back of the nursery carpark. “So, where are you off to next?”

…

Ava and Nate did manage a trip to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London, but by the end of April, the Legends’ lives had become a little bit more insane than usual.

…

And then Sara returned.


End file.
